The Universitas 21 Ranking is the only one in the world to assess national higher education systems, and meets a longstanding need to shift discussion from the ranking of the world’s best universities, to the best overall systems. The essential logic behind the development of national rankings is that it is the higher education system as a whole, not just research intensive universities, that matters for the economic and cultural development of a nation.  It has been developed as a benchmark for governments, education institutions and individuals, and aims to highlight the importance of:

• Creating a strong environment for higher education institutions to contribute to economic and cultural development
• Providing a high-quality experience for students
• Helping institutions to compete for overseas applicants

The 2016 Ranking includes the same 50 countries as in previous reports, which have again been ranked separately by four areas and also given an overall rating. New for 2016 is the productivity and drivers of research for the higher education sector, taking into account the relationships between inputs (resources and Environment) and outcomes (output and connectivity). More...

At the U21 Educational Innovation (EI) Conference at NUS in November 2012, we agreed to conduct a survey of EI-related strategic priorities among member institutions in order to ensure strong relevance of our shared EI activities.  The results of responses shaped the cluster's Strategic Priorities, which are listed below.

1. Leadership of educational change in a changing higher education environment
2. eLearning and online learning
3. Global citizenship
4. Physical and virtual learning environments
5. The teaching-research nexus
6. Curricular reform
7. Student engagement
8. Broadening the educational experience. More...