Bologna Training Center

Ranking and Benchmarking in Higher Education:

Understanding and Exploring New Perspectives 

 

Ranking and benchmarking mechanisms are taking an increasingly prominent place in the international higher education scene. They drive competition between universities as well as between national systems of higher education and have become a focal point for policy making in this sphere. Against the backdrop of the ever-growing prominence of rankings and their implications for internationalization of higher education, the Bologna Training Center devoted its 4th international conference to examining the context and implications of higher education rakings.

 

The conference examined the importance of rankings and benchmarking in the higher education sphere, discussed methodological issues, as well as explored implications for both university and national policy making. The conference also set out to ask: What is the place of social responsibility in university benchmarking? This question was explored by representatives of the National Union of Israeli Students who will present an alternative vision to benchmarking, offering a student perspective to the issue of academic ranking.