IREG Forum in Warsaw – a post conference note
Opening the Forum Jan Sadlak, President of IREG Observatory pointed out to the usefulness of university ranking as information, assessment and transparency tool. In the keynote speech Michal Kleiber, President of the Polish Academy of Sciences stressed the importance of good data and quality information both for rankings and for the higher education. Forum’s sessions were chaired by: Andrea Bonaccorsi (Italy), Waldemar Siwinski (Poland), Nian Cai Liu (China), Klaus Huefner (Germany) and Alex Usher (Canada).
The underlining philosophy of the Forum in Warsaw was that rankings can be only as good as the methodologies behind them are. Consequently both presentations and discussions focused on various aspects of methodologies used in making of rankings. The timing for discussion on this feature of ranking was perfectly chosen considering a number of important new initiatives emerging in the ranking field like U-Multirank in Europe (presented by Gero Federkeil) or Folha's University Ranking in Brasil (presented by Sabine Righetti). Another specific feature of the IREG Forum was special session with panelists representing institutions from several countries with different higher education systems. The panelists Sergey Tunik (Saint Petersburg University), Stanislaw Kistryn (Jagiellonian University), Lars Uhlin (Lund University), Mukash Burkitbayev (Al-Farabi University), Mircea Dumitru (University of Bucaresti) and Ladislav Nagy (University Babes-Bolyai) commented rankings as they are seen from the university’s perspective. The organizers introduced this session to give voice to those who are subject of rankings but rarely have a chance say what they think about the rankings, how they asses rankings’ positive and negative sides.
An active role in the Forum program played a group representing Polish universities, including Marcin Palys, Rector of University of the Warsaw and Wladyslaw Wieczorek, Vice Rector of the Warsaw University of Technology. The two Warsaw universities also hosted the Conference Dinner. The Frederic Chopin Institute was Forum's partner. Elsevier BV publishing house was the sponsor of the IREG Forum. Over the past three years IREG Observatory has worked on the idea of ranking audit and at the Forum the first ranking audit results were announced. Two rankings, national and international, Perspektywy University Ranking (Poland) and the QS World University Rankings were granted the right to use the quality certificate “IREG Approved”. Jan Sadlak, IREG President and Klaus Huefner, IREG Audit Coordinator handed the certificates to Ben Sowter of the QS Inteligence Unit and Waldemar Siwinski, President of the Perspektywy Education Foundation.
IREG Observatory on Academic Ranking and Excellence is an association of ranking organizations, universities and other organizations, interested in the improvement of the quality of rankings and quality of higher education in general. IREG Observatory was established in 2009. The number of its members have grown from nine to 34 since then and new applications are pending. The IREG Observatory and QS Intelligence Unit invite to the IREG-7 Conference Employability and Academic Rankings – Reflections and Impacts, to be held in London, 14-15 May 2014. Additional information: k.bilanow@ireg-observatory.org.
QS World University Ranking - du mieux pour les universités françaises
L’année dernière, les universités françaises brillaient par leurs absences dans le QS World University Ranking. Mais cette année, la donne change!
Les universités françaises ont en effet opéré une remontée spectaculaire qui mérite que l’on s’y attarde. Et la médaille d’or est attribuée à… la Sorbonne-Panthéon! Selon Capcampus, l’université Paris 1 arrive en tête au niveau national dans cinq disciplines: histoire, philosophie, géographie, comptabilité-finances et droit. Et pas de panique, à l’international aussi, le niveau est maintenu. En philosophie, en histoire et en droit, Paris 1 réussit à se maintenir dans le top 50… De quoi redorer l’image des universités françaises, souvent dépréciées face aux universités américaines ou aux systèmes scolaires des pays nordiques… Suite de l'article...
Last year, French universities were conspicuous by their absence in the QS World University Ranking. But this year, things change! More...
Den richtigen Studiengang finden
Classements internationaux des universités, une réponse simpliste et biaisée à une question complexe
Par Isabelle Rey-Lefebvre. Les classements internationaux d'universités prolifèrent depuis 2003. L'Association Européenne des Universités (EUA) en a recensé une dizaine, dont l'impact médiatique et politique ne cesse de croître. Le rapport publié le 11 avril dernier par l'EUA, à l’occasion de son colloque, à Gand, en Belgique, est une charge très sévère contre leur méthodologie et leurs conséquences délétères.
« En discutant avec des universités de Corée et de Chine, je me suis entendu dire qu’elles n’acceptaient de négocier qu’avec leurs homologues classées dans les 20 premières places », témoignait ainsi, à Gand, le président de l’Université Freidrich Alexander, d’Erlangen Nurnberg, Thomas Schöck. « J’ai eu la même expérience », renchérissait M. Rauhvargers, professeur de chimie en Lettonie, auteur du rapport de l’EUA. Lire l'article entier...
De réir Isabelle Rey-Lefebvre. Rátálacha ollscoile Idirnáisiúnta proliferated ó 2003 i leith. An Cumann Ollscoileanna na hEorpa (EUA) Tá dosaen aitheanta, lena n-áirítear na meáin agus ar thionchar polaitiúil ag fás. An tuarascáil a scaoileadh 11 Aibreán ag na Stáit Aontaithe, le linn a comhdhála i Ghent, An Bheilg, tá muirear an-tromchúiseach i gcoinne a n-mhodheolaíocht agus a n-iarmhairtí díobhálacha. Níos mó...
First IREG Audit result announced
Decision on Perspektywy University Ranking (Poland).
Decision on QS World University Ranking .
New QS rankings by subject published last week
And, one should perhaps note how rankings are often criticized, but - few institutions let go of the chance to boast when their faculty or field got into the top 10 or 20 or 50 in the world. So for better or for worse, it does not seem that one can look past the rankings. This is not to argue that one should not critically examine the basis for constituting such rankings and their often adverse implications on national or institutional policies. However, some bits of interesting information emerge: Asia appears to be highly ranked in the areas of engineering, the BRIC nations are not presenting a unified rise across the board, and a number of the Western larger systems arguably underperform despite their recent focus on excellence initiatives (Germany and France). Read more...
EUA survey on the impact of rankings within universities
The first stage of this project consists of carrying out a survey of European higher education institutions, in order to capture and analyse how rankings have impacted or are about to impact on their institutional choices. This survey was launched in March and will close by 17 June 2013. EUA would like to once again encourage all higher education institutions to take part, by clicking on this link.
The results of this survey will directly feed the project’s outcomes, with a final report to be published at the beginning of 2015.
To find out more about the project, please visit the project website.
The RISP project is supported by the Lifelong Learning Programme of the European Union.
School rankings: Why even the better ones are questionable
Classement des meilleurs programmes français de formation continue
La meilleure école du monde en matière de formation continue serait HEC si l'on se fie au tout dernier classement du Financial Times. Le journal économique britannique vient en effet de dévoiler son classement annuel des meilleurs cursus à destination des cadres et des dirigeants.
HEC en tête pour la première fois de ce palmarès
Pour la première fois, c'est HEC qui arrive en tête de ce top 50 des meilleures écoles de commerce, aussi bien pour la qualité de ses programmes inter-entreprises que de la formation sur-mesure proposée aux cadres dirigeants. Suite de l'article...