Design Principles for European Higher Education Sector Observatory

The leading universities of science & technology united in CESAER welcome the initiative for a European Higher Education Sector Observatory as proposed by the European Commission in its communication on a European strategy for universities and solidified with the Council conclusions from 5 April 2022. Our association and our Members continue to engage to better understand and advocate the approaches and metrics used for ranking, benchmarking and assessing higher education institutions to enable fair and reasonable performance analysis reflecting the strengths and challenges of our Members. Our white paper ‘Next Generation Metrics’ (2020) is a key document in this respect. With this position, we present five design principles to feed into the study guiding the observatory’s evolution and its design and development: Establish a European Classification for Higher Education Institutions; Ensure a global scope and coverage; Bring together relevant data, including turnover in EU funding programmes; Allow for continuous methodological co-creation and advancement together with universities and their networks; Provide ample and sophisticated opportunities for benchmarking. President Rik Van de Walle said: “This observatory is intended to support the European strategy for universities and therefore must be particularly relevant and useful for universities themselves. The five design principles described in our position thereby are fundamentally interlinked and together constitute an indispensable package for the design and development of this observatory.” Peter Elspass (Chair of Task Force Benchmark) said: “For over a decade our network has engaged in improving the understanding and shaping of metrics used for ranking, benchmarking and assessing universities to enable fair and reasonable performance analysis, reflecting the strengths of our members and the challenges that they are facing . A full integration of U-Multirank into the observatory is essential given its important methodological work, open and transparent approach and institutional benchmarking capacities.