Brussels, 12/12/2008 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission has launched a call for tenders for the design and testing of a new multi-dimensional university ranking system (i.e. one that covers the various missions of institutions, such as education, research, innovation, internationalisation and community outreach with global outreach). This initiative builds on earlier EU-funded work on mapping the different strengths and missions of universities and responds to the wishes of the French Presidency. French Minister for Higher Education and Research Valérie Pécresse has expressed her intention to explore and test the feasibility of a new ranking system for higher education and research institutions in Europe, in comparison with other world regions. The first results of the envisaged pilot project will be available in the first half of 2011. “There are not many ranking systems of universities of the type we are interested in. What we are looking at is multi-dimensional, because we want to take account of the rich diversity of our universities, so that potential students, researchers and staff can get better picture about the respective university,” said Education Commissioner Ján Figel'.
Comparable information on higher education institutions and their teaching and research programmes should make it easier for students and researchers to make informed choices on where and what to study and where to work. Better information would also help policy-makers at institutional, national and European levels develop future strategies in higher education. Existing mono-dimensional rankings do not fulfil these purposes because they tend to focus on certain aspects of research and on entire institutions, rather than on individual programmes and disciplines, the Commission says. The Commission will provide €1.1 million in funding for the project. In the first phase, from May 2009 to the end of 2009, the tenderer will design a multi-dimensional ranking system for higher education institutions in consultation with stakeholders. Then, in the second phase, from January 2010 to the end of May 2011, the tenderer will test the feasibility of the multi-dimensional ranking system on a representative sample of no less then 150 higher education and research institutions. The sample will focus on the disciplines of engineering and business studies. Information on the call for tenders is available at http: //ec.europa.eu/dgs/education_culture/calls/tenders_en.html (I.L./transl.rt)