Overview of HE Higher Education Ranking
A higher education ranking is a tool that measures the performance of higher education institutions according to a number of criteria and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that measure specific aspects of the operation of higher education institutions.
The idea of the need to launch the HE Higher Education Ranking emerged from the desire to create a new ranking that includes a large number of standards and KPIs related to higher education, which have not been measured and used by any ranking of higher education institutions so that this newly-established ranking would be comprehensive, holistic and lead to the overall improvement in activity and operation of HEIs, and their development.
When we thought about choosing the criteria and KPIs that we will add, our thinking was limited to determining what are the most important criteria that must be added, and what are the most important performance indicators that must be focused on.
Based on the foregoing, we searched for KPIs used by UNESCO, the International Monetary Fund IMF, and the United Nations UN, which measure the quality of higher education around the world, access to sustainable education, and the achievement of justice and equality in the educational process.
Taking into account that we believe quality assurance and accreditation are important factors for higher education institutions, we have added KPIs concerned with quality assurance and accreditation, management system for educational organizations (EOMS), ISO 21001, and other standards and indicators.
In addition, we have focused on developing the educational institution’s digital access, developing its future vision, and achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and 2023 Vision, in addition to enhancing transparency and academic freedom for higher education institutions.
Considering that this ranking is a ranking for higher education institutions, all educational institutions operating in the higher education sector are entitled to participate in, and in order to achieve competitiveness, the number of participating universities was limited to 1000 universities only.
Certainly, academic rankings are not a marketing and promotion tool, but rather an improvement and development one, and this is our strategic vision for HE Higher Education Ranking, as we are working to raise the level of educational institutions at all procedures and encourage them to fully develop and improve so that their progress in the ranking reflects their achievement of strategic qualitative leaps on a number of standards. Thus, we ensure the process of improvement and development of this enterprise.
Therefore, even if educational institutions wish to deal with the ranking as a promotional and marketing tool, universities will be required to develop themselves and raise their level in order to obtain a better ranking.
We know for sure that increasing the number of Standards and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) is a double-edged sword and carries both positive and negative aspects:
As for the positive aspects, it is clear that the general and comprehensive ranking of the higher education institution will reflect its level according to 25 criteria and 177 performance indicators, and therefore when universities achieve progress in the ranking, they will implicitly have achieved progress and added benefit in a large number of criteria and indicators.
In addition, in the case the ranking includes a few indicators and criteria, educational institutions will be able to focus on developing one aspect of their operation as a higher education institution and neglect the rest of the other criteria, thus supporting the university in one sector and neglecting it in other sectors.
The Ranking is able to reflect the general, comprehensive, and true portrait of the operation of higher education institutions.
For this reason, increasing the number of standards and indicators contributes to ensuring that the general operation of the educational institution is raised.
Speaking of the negatives, the only negative of the ranking is that higher education institutions will need some time to prepare information on the standards and indicators included in the ranking, but given that the ranking will be issued on an annual basis, this point will not be really problematic.
One of the very important points that the ranking focused on is the comprehensiveness of its methodology, and by that, we mean that all universities from all countries of the world can participate in.
Although the ranking is based on scientific, academic, and research foundations, and works to raise the academic level in the institution of higher education, we considered it necessary to support the university’s relationship with society and to support the cultural and social impact of higher education institutions. Universities are born out of society, have a direct impact on society, and create added value that helps in the development of society.
In addition, it is extremely necessary for higher education institutions to be open to the world, believe in globalization and internationalization, and provide their information to all nations and peoples.
Therefore, we added a standard for the linguistic impact of higher education institutions and the need for higher education institutions to provide information about them on their website in more than one language.
In conclusion, the ranking is a tool for improving and developing the operation of higher education institutions, and we hope that HE Higher Education Ranking will contribute to providing added value to higher education institutions around the world.