Harvard ánd Reutlingen
U-Multirank is the first global ranking offering a full picture on the diversity of university performance, providing users with data across five dimensions: teaching & learning, research, knowledge transfer, international orientation and regional engagement, for its seven fields-of-study: electrical and mechanical engineering, business studies and physics and, new this year, psychology, computer science and medicine.
What you’re looking for
The new European tool for comparing university performance internationally presents information on more than 1,200 higher education institutions, up from 850 just one year ago. The universities come from 83 countries, with more than 1,800 faculties and 7,500 study programmes in seven fields of study. With 21,000 data scores on the institutional level and 37,000 on the field-base level, U-Multirank is the largest global university ranking – and the most comprehensive information system on universities – in the world.
U-Multirank now shows that Harvard and MIT are the top performers when it comes to the highest numbers of publications and patents. But looking more closely, it reveals that Reutlingen University of Applied Sciences in Germany has the highest percentage of co-publications with industry (showing the intensity of its co-operation with companies), and that the highest levels of student mobility are to be found in business schools like IESEG School of Management Lille in France. U-Multirank clearly shows that various aspects of excellence are to be found in many different universities and that the concept of the “best” university in the world depends on what you’re looking for.
Not looking for thé Number 1
Frans van Vught, U-Multirank’s joint project leader stresses that “just over 8% of the institutions show a broad range of ‘very good’ performance (more than 10 ‘A’ scores). But U-Multirank also shows that 50% of them achieve one-to-five ‘A’ scores (very good) on specific indicators. So we can clearly see that while some universities are good at many things, most universities are good – even excellent – in specific areas.”
“This is great for students, university leaders and companies who want to employ graduates or carry out joint research. Students want to find the university that’s best for them, according to their own preferences, and looking for the ‘number 1’ university in the world is misleading. What students need, what companies need, and what universities need themselves is the full picture. U-Multirank makes that possible,” said Professor Dr. Frank Ziegele, U-Multirank’s joint project leader.
In addition to its user-driven approach, U-Multirank offers 17 “readymade” rankings, up from 3 a year ago. Pre-designed by the U-Multirank team, they offer a quick overview on a specific aspect of university performance. At the institutional level these focus on: research and research linkages, international orientation and economic involvement; at the field level they address teaching and learning and international orientation in the seven fields of study. The readymade rankings are another way in which U-Multirank shows the diversity of university performance, rather than one-dimensional league tables.
