Brussels, 03/06/2009 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 2 June, following an open call for tender, the European Commission announced the winning bid to carry out a feasibility study on the design and testing of a new multi-dimensional global university ranking. The winning bid comes from the CHERPA-Network consortium and is led by the Centre for Higher Education Policy Studies of the Twente University (Netherlands) and the Centrum für Hochschulentwicklung (Germany). The Commission explained that the other partners in the consortium are the Centre for Science and Technology Studies of the Leiden University (Netherlands), the Research Division INCENTIM of the Leuven University (Belgium), the Observatoire des Sciences et des Techniques Paris (France), the European Federation of National Engineering Associations and the European Foundation for Management Development. The project will cover all kinds of university and similar higher education establishments in and outside the European Union. It will focus on different study areas and help education establishments to improve their development strategies, as well as the courses on offer. Accessible, transparent and comparable information will make it easier for stakeholders, particularly students to make comparable informed choices between the different institutions and their programmes. The project will take 2 years and will cost approximately €1.1million. (I.L./transl.rh)