In spite its virtual form, because of COVID-19, the annual IREG conference held on 20 and 21 October turned out to be a success. Over 350 registered participants followed it online in 55 countries on all continents. It does not happen often that practically all the prominent global university rankings were present along with their leading figures such as Robert Morse (US News), Phil Baty (THE), Ben Sowter (QS), Gero Federkeil (U-Multirank) and Isidro Aquillo (Webometrics). Among international experts on higher education there were Ellen Hazelkorn, Hans De Wit and Alex Usher.

Discussion at the conference concentrated on the possible influence of COVID-19 on higher education in general and on university rankings in particular. Listening to the experts, one got an impression that in the wake of the pandemic the national and regional rankings will emerge as gaining importance over the big global rankings.

IREG 2020 Beijing Conference owns its name to the fact that when planned, it was to be hosted by Beijing University of Technology.