Rankings in Institutional Strategies and Processes (RISP) roundtable

Around 25 university leaders and senior managers from 19 countries across Europe gathered in Brussels on 5 June for a roundtable organised in the framework of the EUA-led project on university rankings entitled: “Rankings in Institutional Strategies and Processes” (RISP). The event was organised in order for the project team to engage in further data collection as well as to discuss and get feedback on the preliminary findings of the RISP project.
Universities worldwide are increasingly being confronted with ranking and classification initiatives both at national and international level. While many institutions have reservations about the methodologies used by the ranking compilers, there is a growing recognition that rankings and classifications are here to stay and many universities feel the need to respond. The RISP project is the first European-wide survey which seeks to analyse the ways in which universities across Europe respond to rankings – consciously or unconsciously – and it will also look in the final report to propose recommendations on how rankings can be used to promote institutional development while also identifying potential pitfalls that the universities should avoid.
The project partners, EUA, the Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT), the French Rectors’ Conference (CPU) and the Academic Information Centre (AIC) in Latvia, now plan to carry out a detailed analysis of all of the quantitative and qualitative information that has been collected during the project survey, site visits, and roundtable in order to formulate a comprehensive report that will be launched in Brussels in November. More information on the RISP project, which is supported by funding from the EU Lifelong Learning Programme, is available on the project website. More...