On September 25th, 2014, the ITMO University hosted a seminar on the problems of building up universities ratings and on investigating the opportunities of raising the ranking of Russian high schools within the global higher education environment. Some experts from the European University Association (EUA) took part in the seminar.
Despite the small number of participants and chamber atmosphere, the topics discussed at the workshop were very important for whole global education system. These days, ratings are very important for the development of the higher education in many countries. Programs for making universities competitive compared with the world's leading high schools have already been opened in Russia as well as in China, France, Japan and many other countries.
“Some 10 years ago after a ranking of the best world universities was published by Shanghai Jiao Tong University, the question arose regarding the way this list affects higher education. Our University immediately started vividly discussing the importance of ratings - whether this approach is good or bad. But, of course, world rankings are now a part of a single process of development of higher education that is occurring around the world,” Lesley Wilson, the European University Association Secretary General, comments.
Undoubtedly, the desire of being among the top ones helps universities to identify priority goals and objectives whose the achievement would make them more competitive. But do the international university rankings reflect the real situation in global higher education? According to Michael Gaebel, the head of the EUA Higher Education Policy Committee, it is very difficult to regard the lists of the best universities as really objective. "For example, one of the rating indicators are Nobel Prize winners in a high school. In this case, one can gather a handful of elderly Nobel winners in one university and that's it - you won't need anything else! Another university won't feature any winners, but the level of teaching would be much higher there. How can one evaluate this? Objectiveness - that is the main topic when discussing ratings".
Therefore, trying to get representative data, a group of scientists led by Frank Ziegele decided to develop its own ranking system, which could reflect the real situation in the global higher education.In the U-Multirank ranking there is information on more than 850 higher education institutions from 74 countries, 1000 specialties and 5000 curriculums.The new development hasa great advantage over the existing rankings. Because U-Multirank is a program that allows the user, while looking through the list of high schools, to set the criteria that are of interest, and get the desired result.
Another positive aspect of the new technique is the possibility of comparing universities only of the same type, for example, in "engineering" or "business economics".This will allow users to understand the situation in a particular area, instead of being content with general information. While workingon the rating, the scientists were comparing the universities using 31 indicators, which were combined into five categories: scientific reputation of the university, quality of education and learning environment, international orientation,knowledge transfer and regional activity.The project was only launched in 2014, and now the developers continue gathering information about different world's universities. The ITMO University sent an application as well.
"The ideas that form the basis of U-Multirank, are different from those from the other ratings”, Vladimir Vasiliev, the rector of the ITMO University, says. “It seems to me that the ideas of U-Multirank are much more progressive. In my opinion, it is very right that the program allows you to view and analyze the way of developing one or another university goes".
Still, experts call for not to reject the already existing system of world rankings, as there is no doubt that it has helped a high school in many countries to reach a new level: the education system has become more transparent, universities – independent, the research level has risen in universities.For example, in Russia a lot more scientists became involved in a work, a variety of government programs, which are aimed on the education system development, were established, and, as a result, an opportunity to organize such seminars with the participation of international experts in the field of education appeared.
"Meeting with the world's leading experts – is a chance for us to express ourselves,opportunity to talk about what we are interested in or concerned about.That is why the participation in such events is important for the ITMO Universityand the whole Russian higher education", Vladimir Vasiliev says.