EUA members’ participation in U-Multirank: Experiences from the first round

By Tia Loukkola and Rita Morais, EUA members’ participation in U-Multirank: Experiences from the first round.
The first results of U-Multirank (UMR), a multi-dimensional ranking of higher education institutions produced with seed funding from the European Commission, were unveiled on 13 May 2014. EUA has followed the development of U-Multirank since its beginning, most recently through membership in the Advisory Board. UMR has also been discussed by EUA’s governing bodies on a number of occasions and these discussions have demonstrated that a great variety of views on UMR exist among universities and their representatives: while some have great expectations of UMR and believe in its values, others have expressed major concerns about the initiative. Therefore, it was concluded that EUA should remain vigilant and monitor the project, but without taking a clear stand in favour or against it.
After the launch of the first UMR results, the EUA Board found that a short membership consultation would be useful. This would be an opportunity to ask universities about their experiences with UMR, not only their expectations or views on how the initiative might work. Thus, the secretariat carried out a short survey of individual EUA members in early autumn 2014. The results of the study are presented in this report.
References
European University Association, EUA, 2013, Global university rankings and their impact – Report II, by Andrejs Rauhvargers, http://www.eua.be/Libraries/Publications_homepage_list/EUA_Global_University_Rankings_and_Their_ Impact_-_Report_II.sflb.ashx (last checked 13 January 2015)
European University Association, EUA, 2014, Rankings in institutional strategies and processes: Impact or illusion? by Ellen Hazelkorn, Tia Loukkola, Thérèse Zhang, http://www.eua.be/Libraries/Publications_homepage_list/EUA_RISP_Publication.sflb.ashx (last checked 13 January 2015)
U-Multirank web-site (UMR) http://www.u-multirank.eu/ (last checked 13 January 2015)
European Commission (EC), 2011, Supporting growth and jobs – an agenda for the modernisation of Europe’s higher education systems, http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:52011DC0567&from=EN (last checked 13 January 2015)
Frans van Vught & Frank Ziegele (eds.), 2011, Design and Testing the Feasibility of a Multidimensional Global University Ranking - Final Report, http://ec.europa.eu/education/library/study/2011/multirank_en.pdf (last checked 13 January 2015). Download EUA members’ participation in U-Multirank: Experiences from the first round. More...