Rankings by subject illustrate that many universities not visible in major academic rankings, perform remarkably well in a limited academic fields and study areas.
There is hardly an institution which can claim to perform equally well in all fields and study programs and get confirmation of this by external quality assessment such, academic rankings. At the same time a diverse institutional landscape of higher education reveals that a number of universities have a remarkable performance in a limited academic fields and study areas. Therefore, some national, global, and specialized rankings, in addition to the whole-institution assessment, prepare and publish rankings covering specific academic disciplines or study programmes.
The IREG Forum 2015, to be hosted by the Aalborg University, will take a closer look at this issue by mapping and analysing subject and discipline rankings constructed by major providers of academic rankings. The following three major groups of academic disciplines will be given special attention: - engineering, medicine and humanities and social sciences. Similarities and differences between various academic disciplines, study programs as well as global and national rankings will be discussed.
Similarly to the previous IREG conferences, the “Aalborg Forum” will provide excellent opportunity to learn about the new initiatives in academic rankings and related developments in universities and other organizations.
An important part of the program will be a presentation of the IREG Guidelines for Stakeholders of Academic Rankings. More...

After eighteen months of discussion the US Department of Education has issued a draft framework for its proposed ratings of American colleges and universities.The department has revealed the indicators that it is considering for the proposed ratings. It has not, however, made a final decision or decided the weighting that the various indicators might receive. More...

By Nitin Mahajan. With Indian educational institutions failing to make a mark in international rankings, that aim to judge standards according to world norms, the government is expected to soon unveil the national parameters for ranking of educational institutes.
Sources stated that the Union human resources development ministry is in the final stages of formulating these parameters that will judge all educational institutes in the country. The parameters will aim to classify all higher educational technical institutes, universities and colleges based on the infrastructure, facilities, faculty and other requirements earmarked. Data, including research, placements, patent applications, consultancy work and others, that are up to the standards of international rankings agencies are also being collected for the same. More...

• Introduction
• View results online:
  • by unit of assessment
  • by institution
• REF 01.2014 Research Excellence Framework 2014: The results (December 2014)
• Download:
  • results. More...

The Research Excellence Framework (REF) is the new system for assessing the quality of research in UK higher education institutions.
The results of the 2014 REF were published on 18 December 2014.
The results were announced in this news item.
A brief overview of the REF is provided in the Key facts leaflet.

The results of the 2014 Research Excellence Framework (REF), announced today, demonstrate the world-leading quality of research conducted in UK universities. For the first time in an exercise of this kind, the REF also highlights the wide-ranging and significant benefits that UK research brings to the economy and society.
The REF provides a robust and thorough assessment of the quality of universities’ research in all disciplines. The research of 52,061 academic staff from 154 UK universities was peer-reviewed by a series of panels comprising UK and international experts, and external users of research.
For further information, see www.ref.ac.uk. More...