EU stimuleert profilering HO

Bij de eerste presentatie  van het multidimensionelerankingsysteem van Cherpa (van o.a. het Duitse CHE en Cheps inTwente) in Brussel zet de directeur generaal hoger onderwijs van deEuropese Commissie uiteen waarom zo’n rankingsysteem “here to stayis”.

Transparantie middelen helpen

“To follow up Europe 2020, the Commission will bring out a newCommunication on the Modernisation of Higher Education in theautumn. While it is too early to go into all the details, we willcertainly recall that few European higher education institutionshave the potential to excel in all these different fields.Increasingly, the majority of institutions need to diversify theirprofiles and to focus on their strengths. And in order to identifythese strengths, HEI’s need to be able to benchmark themselves withsimilar higher education institutions at national and internationallevels.

Transparency instruments such as classifications and rankings canhelp institutions to carry out this task. They are particularlyuseful when designed around several dimensions and when they offerstakeholders, in particular students, relevant information, forexample when choosing an institution or considering a mobility stayabroad.”

Nu al gunstige werking

Het experiment met de vorming van U-Multirank om zulketransparanttie op Europees vlak moelijk te maken heeft nu alpositieve effecten. Het kan daarom niet bij een eenmalige try-outbijven, zegt de DG. Fijntjes merkt hij ook op, dat de komst van ditEU-project vanuit toonaangevende kenniscentra als CHE en Cheps opzich al heeft gewerkt. De veel bekritiseerde methodologievan de Britse THES-rankings werd intussen bijvoorbeeldaangepakt.

“Happily, as the Consortium will explain in a moment, the studyshows that the multi-dimensional concept can produce a workableinstrument. At the same time, further work will be needed todevelop the indicators and collect the underlying data in certaindimensions. Therefore, taking this further cannot be a one-shotexercise; it will rather need a staged development over time asdifferent dimensions are strengthened.

Thus, the most important message for today, I believe, is to saythat a multi-dimensional path appears to be feasible and, if we areto judge by the increasing number of conferences devoted to thesubject, to be gaining increasing support from stakeholders,including institutions. Let us see if you agree this morning.

This new approach could also help to steer the ranking debateand existing ranking initiatives in the right direction. The veryexistence of U-multirank has already influenced many of theexisting rankings. QS and Times Higher, for example, have revisedtheir methodologies and now also provide options formulti-dimensional and “personalised” rankings. This was another ofour goals for this project: to influence the global ranking debateand help existing methodologies develop more sophisticatedapproaches.”

Meedoen is noodzakelijk voor kritischemassa

De Europese Commissie wil bij de vlgende stappen wel zien, datruim voldoende HO-instellingen gaan participeren. En niet alleenbinnen de EU bij landen waartussen de data eenvoudig te vergelijkenzijn. U-Multirank moet geen benauwd ‘eurocentrisch’ instrumentariumworden.

“We need to identify a solid core of participating institutionsin Europe, where comparable data are more readily available. But wewill also need to include non-EU institutions, including some more”elite” institutions. This will make the ranking tool more useful,allowing European institutions to find their peers around the worldand to position themselves in the global, and not simply European,context. It should also help to dispel any notions that this isjust a Eurocentric tool to show European institutions in a betterlight.  The more participants we get on board, the better thetool will be.”