SATN Annual Conference 2009

“Classification and ranking in Europe” By ing.J.A.Hoving

Are Rankings Reshaping Higher Education? (Hazelkorn)

HEIs are taking rankings very seriously... 58% respondents are unhappy with their

current rank; 93% and 82% of the respondents, respectively,

want to improve their national or international ranking;

70% of all respondents wish to be in top 10% nationally, and 71% want to be in top 25% internationally.

Myths (Hazelkorn)

Rankings provide useful comparative information about the performance of different HEIs, facilitating student choice and benchmarking;

Indicators are ‘plausible’/meaningful measurements of research and knowledge creation;

High ranked HEI’s are better than lower ranked/not ranked institutions;

Concentrating research in a few elite institutions or scientific disciplines will ‘lift all boats’.

Because rankings incentivise behaviour...

Using global rankings as the benchmark only makes sense if the indicators are appropriate –otherwise, governments and institutions risk transforming their higher education system and institutions, and subverting other policy objectives, to conform to metrics designed by others for other purposes.

Policy choices are critical.

A classification must contribute to the needs of different stakeholders (van Vught):

Transparency for students; Transparency for business & industry and

other organisations; Transparency for policy makers; Transparency for researchers; Profiling instrument for higher education

institutions.

“The impact of international rankings is research biased; there is a need for alternatives to capture learning outcomes.” (Yelland)

Educating as well as researching classifies what makes a type of higher education institute. The OECD has set up a programme called the Initiative on Assessing Higher Education Learning Outcomes (AHELO), because greater attention to quality is required by stakeholders, as follows;

• for students and employers to make better-informed choices •for HEIs, departments or faculties to better understand their

comparative strengths and weaknesses •for public policymakers to quantify stocks and flows in high-

level skills and to assess the impact of policy decisions.

Shanghai Jiao Tong ranking

Any university that has any Nobel Laureates, Fields Medals, Highly Cited Researchers, or papers published in Nature or Science.

Major universities of every country with significant amounts of papers indexed by Citation Indexes of Thomson.

The result was: Number of universities scanned: >2000 Number of universities actually ranked: >1000 Number of ranked universities on their

webpage: 500 No arts : no humanities!

Other classifications

Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education™

The Times [QS World] University Ranking CHE Germany CHEPS classification (EU)

Europe gets ready for alternative

rankings; the CHERPA-network (1)

Consortium for Higher Education and Research Performance Assessment consisting of;

CHE – Centre for Higher Education Development (Gütersloh, Germany)

Centre for Higher Education Policy Studies (CHEPS) at the

University of Twente (The Netherlands) Centre for Science and Technology Studies (CWTS) at Leiden

University (The Netherlands) research division INCENTIM at the Catholic University of Leuven

(Belgium) Observatoire des Sciences et des Techniques (OST) in Paris

(France)

Europe gets ready for alternative

rankings; the CHERPA-network (2)

A design for a global ranking of higher education institutions will be developed which avoids the flaws and deficits of existing international rankings and which should provide a valid, fair comparison of institutions.

Studychoice.nl

is an easy-to-use application that guides you step-by-step through more than 2500 bachelor's and master's degree programmes in the Netherlands. The result is a clearly presented personal comparison of study programmes.

HU University of Applied Sciences

Utrecht

Second largest University of Applied Sciences

right at the centre of

The Netherlands

Safe, sociable atmosphere

Student city

Fourth largest city in The Netherlands

Large private sector and service industry

1,050 foreign-based companies

(IBM, Fortis, Cap Gemini, Oracle, Mercedes- Benz, Sara Lee…)

Utrecht: ‘meeting place for talent’

35,000 students (33.500 bachelors and 2.200 masters)

74 bachelor programmes

25 master programmes

3,200 staff

Located in two cities:

the City of Utrecht (Uithof campus)

the City of Amersfoort

Facts and figures I

Facts and figures II

€ 245 M turnover 2007 comprising of:

€ 221 M bachelor-level education,

€ 24 M research & post-graduate turnover.

Growth in 2008: plus 10% new enrolments

Marketleader (24%) in higher adult education, 4200 new enrolments yearly

175000 square meters floor space on 5 hectares of land

Growth Hogeschool Utrecht

Communication & Journalism

Economics & Management

Natural Sciences & Technology

Education

Health Care

Society & Law

6 faculties:

900 regular international students (770 non-EU/EEA students)

100 student nationalities 275 outgoing students (study) 400 outgoing students (internships) 350 incoming students (exchange) 30 staff working abroad

International mobility

Bachelor programmes International Business and Management

Studies Entrepreneurship for Developing Areas International Communication and Media International Business and Economics International Marketing Management Three final-year Engineering programmes

Master programmes International Communication Management International Applied Communication

English-taught degrees

To develop from Higher Education Institution into Knowledge Organisation

To create and circulate knowledge, contribute to innovation

To increase student and staff mobility

To increase multidisciplinarity (also internationally)

To increase co-operation and networking with companies, local institutions (eg.Task Force Innovation Utrecht) and authorities

To help students develop a research attitude

Our ambitions

HU Research Centres: Built Environment Business & Industry Process Innovation Communication & Journalism Diversity & Education Innovation & Business Innovation in Health Care Innovation in (Vocational)Education Life Sciences & Chemistry Product Development Social Innovation Specific Care & Education

Applied Research

HU and Utrecht University

Extensive co-operation with Utrecht University:

Education

Research

International Affairs

Facilities for students

Buildings

Regional networks and platforms

Facilities/ ICT

Education characteristics

Competence-based

Broad

International

Transparent

Up-to-date

Efficient

Flexible

Strongly linked to professional practice