Par Isabelle Rey-Lefebvre. La Commission Européenne lance officiellement, mercredi 30 janvier, à Dublin, dans le cadre de la présidence irlandaise de l’Union Européenne, son classement de 500 universités européennes et du monde entier, appelé U-Multirank. Un premier palmarès, partiel puisque ne couvrant que quatre champs disciplinaires (éco-gestion, physique, ingénieries mécanique et électrique) devrait paraître au début de l’année 2014.
L’Europe entend ainsi prendre ses distances avec les classements déjà connus, comme ceux de Shangaï ou du magazine Times Higher Education, où la réputation dans le domaine de la recherche est prépondérante.  "C’est une approche nouvelle qui donnera aux étudiants et aux établissements un aperçu clair de leurs performances, dans une série de domaines clefs", assure Androulla Vassiliou, commissaire européenne à l’éducation. Suite de l'article...

By Jody O'Callaghan. University degrees are being ranked by officials according to their earning potential. A Ministry of Education report, Moving On Up - What Young People Earn After Their Tertiary Education, compares what graduates earn after studying different subjects and at different levels in New Zealand.
It coincides with the launch of a tool on the careers.govt.nz website today that uses up-to-date tertiary qualifications data and information from Inland Revenue to give potential students a frank outlook of different careers.
Five years after leaving university, a medicine graduate is earning about three times the average $35,500 salary of a performing arts graduate, according to the report. An engineer earns $58,287.
Tertiary Education, Skills and Employment Minister Steven Joyce said the new report and website offered important, real information about New Zealand's industries. Read more...

By Ian Mundell. U-Multirank aims to correct a perceived bias towards research performance.
Plans to roll out a new system of rankings for Europe's universities to encourage international comparison will be outlined next week at a conference in Dublin. The system, called U-Multirank, has been developed with funding from the European Union. It aims to correct a perceived bias towards research performance in other international rankings, and so present a more balanced picture of university activities.
The goal is to persuade at least 500 universities to opt into the first phase of the system. Most will be from Europe, with a small number of international institutions included for comparison. The first ranking would be published early in 2014. The perceived research bias of existing rankings – principally the Shanghai Academic Ranking of World Universities and the Times Higher Education World University Ranking – is seen as problematic because it fails to recognise that universities may have other goals and their users may have other priorities. The EU initiative aims to bring out these other university activities and allow institutions to be compared accordingly. Read more...

By Ian Mundell. U-Multirank aims to correct a perceived bias towards research performance.
Plans to roll out a new system of rankings for Europe's universities to encourage international comparison will be outlined next week at a conference in Dublin. The system, called U-Multirank, has been developed with funding from the European Union. It aims to correct a perceived bias towards research performance in other international rankings, and so present a more balanced picture of university activities.
The goal is to persuade at least 500 universities to opt into the first phase of the system. Most will be from Europe, with a small number of international institutions included for comparison. The first ranking would be published early in 2014. The perceived research bias of existing rankings – principally the Shanghai Academic Ranking of World Universities and the Times Higher Education World University Ranking – is seen as problematic because it fails to recognise that universities may have other goals and their users may have other priorities. The EU initiative aims to bring out these other university activities and allow institutions to be compared accordingly. Read more...

Higher Education Conference - "Rankings and the Visibility of Quality Outcomes in the European Higher Education Area". 30.01.2013 - 31.01.2013.
The subject of this conference is higher education ranking systems with a particular focus on the needs of different users. The conference will also focus on the Commission's U-Multi-rank project and will provide an opportunity for the consortium leading this project to provide clarity to institutions and policy makers around the opportunities, challenges and requirements of the project.
Expected participants include representatives of the various users of rankings systems including students, institutional leaders, academics, enterprise leaders and policy makers.
Aoife Conduit, Assistant Principal, Higher Education Division. T: +353 1889 22 65. E: aoife_conduit@education.gov.ie.

By Lu Na. In the 2013 China University Rankings recently published by Chinese researcher Wu Shulian and his team China University Assessment, six C9 League members claimed the top six spots of the list, demonstrating the league's lasting clout in China's education system.
The list was based on four indexes that reflect the quality of a university: average academic level of teachers, teachers' performance, quality of freshman and quality of undergraduate students.
The China University Rankings, originally launched in 1993, examine 706 Chinese universities in overall strength, student cultivation and research programs, in order to provide multiple angles for students and their parents to compare and choose the most suitable university for their children. Read more...

Immer mehr Länder machen politische Entscheidungen von den Bestenlisten abhängig - Gleichzeitig nimmt Kritik an Methodik zu.
Wien - Times Higher Education (THE), QS, Shanghai - internationale Uni-Rankings gewinnen immer mehr Einfluss auf politische Entscheidungen: Sie sind Kriterium für Hochschulkooperationen, Vergabe von Stipendien für Auslandsaufenthalte und sogar Aufenthaltsberechtigungen. Gleichzeitig ist der Hype um die Ranglisten immer umstrittener, erste Universitäten verweigern bereits die Teilnahme. Die EU wird mit "U-Multirank" Ende Jänner indes erstmals ein eigenes Uni-Ranking präsentieren, das durch ein breiteres Spektrum an Leistungsindikatoren ein besseres und realistischeres Bild von den Hochschulen geben soll. Mehr...

Par Isabelle Rey-Lefebvre. Surprise, à la mi-août 2012, lors de la publication du classement de Shanghaï: parmi les 100 premières universités mondiales, l’université de Strasbourg n'y figure pas, reléguée au-delà de la centième place. La fusion, en 2009, des trois établissements strasbourgeois et, surtout, l’attribution du prix Nobel de médecine en 2011 au biologiste Jules Hoffmann, qui a réalisé toute sa carrière à Strasbourg, aurait pourtant dû faire grimper l’université alsacienne. Que s'est-il passé?
D’origine luxembourgeoise, Jules Hoffmann a opté pour la nationalité française en 1970 et travaillé sur le système immunitaire inné des mouches drosophiles. Bien qu'à la retraite, il se rend tous les jours dans son labo sur le campus de Strasbourg. Suite de l'article...