Universities in international rankings: the role of the CRUI.

CRUI is the Association if the Italian rectors.

The volume tells the 3 years of activity of the Working Group in which 68 universities participated with the aim of increasing the number of Italian universities in the international rankings and improving the overall ranking of the university system.
Goal fully centred and highlighted by the numbers: 85 more Italian universities in the 6 rankings considered and 11 more in the top 200 positions.

“Promoting the growth of universities in the international context is a fundamental factor not only to increase their competitiveness but to increase the attractiveness of the Italian education and research system as a whole. – declared Ferruccio Resta, President of the CRUI, on the occasion of the publication of the report”.

“It is a priority to improve the perception and positioning of the country in a unified way, recomposing an image often drawn in a disarticulated way. Let us not forget that in dealing with the pandemic universities have shown a great sense of cohesion and resilience. It is on this image that Italy must invest, a not secondary task for the CRUI.”

Started in 2017 and coordinated by the Universities of Bologna and Padua, the Group has also worked to develop common guidelines for the provision of data to the main agencies, and to propose additions and methodological changes to the managing bodies.
In addition, the Report offers points of comparison between university systems in different European countries in relation to international rankings and other economic-social dimensions investigated through OECD data. The volume also contains the operational guidelines elaborated by the Group for the provision of data to four of the most important world rankings: Quacquarelli Symonds (QS), Times Higher Education (THE), Greenmetric and U-Multirank. 

A survey within the university system confirmed that the activities of the CRUI and the Group had a positive impact both on the actions taken by the university in terms of ranking and on its performance.

The Report “The CRUI Working Group on international rankings: activities, results and prospects 2017 – 2020” can be downloaded free from the CRUI website at the following link (in Italian):

Gruppo di lavoro CRUI sui ranking internazionali – attività, risultati e prospettive 2017 – 2020