The European Commission launched a new university ranking initiative at the end of January to give stakeholders a clear picture of performances across universities, highlighting areas of excellence in research, teaching, learning, knowledge transfer, regional development and internationalisation.
U-Multirank is, at present, financed by the EU to the tune of 2 million euros, and is not intended to result in any kind of league table.
Many international universities, however, are opposed to the scheme, and Imperial College, Oxbridge and Edinburgh have already left U-Multirank, calling it ill-conceived and badly designed, refusing to release information that the ranking system depends on.
U-Multirank is due to publish results by 2014, but its timing looks to be severely affected by the amount of organised and unorganised opposition from universities.
European Commissioner Androulla Vassiliou, states that U-Multirank "will contribute to the modernisation and quality of higher education”, and insists it will allow universities to understand their own strengths and failings much better.
League of European Research Universities (LERU) Secretary-General and Spokesman, Kurt Deketelaere says, however: “We consider U-Multirank at best an unjustifiable use of taxpayers’ money and at worst a serious threat to a healthy higher education system.”
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