University rankings: Diversity, excellence and the European initiative

University rankings: Diversity, excellence and the European initiative (pdf) – Two recent initiatives funded by the European Commission (U-Map and U-Multirank) represent a novel approach by attempting to map the diversity of Europe’s universities and by ranking their performance in multiple dimensions of excellence. Although LERU applauds the attempt, there are both principled and practical reasons for being sceptical about the ultimate validity and utility of rankings