IREG FORUM 2013

Venue: Hotel Novotel Warszawa Centrum
Marszałkowska no. 94/98

Warsaw, 16-17 May 2013

Wednesday, 15 May 2013

Whole day Arrival of participants

15.00 – 18.00 IREG Observatory Executive Committee (closed meeting)

19.30 – 21.30 Welcome Reception (Location: Hotel Novotel Warszawa Centrum)

Thursday, 16 May 2013

8.30 – 9.00    Registration

9.00 – 10.00    Opening Session
Welcome and opening remarks from:

• Waldemar Siwiński, President, Perspektywy Education Foundation; Vice-President of IREG Observatory
• Jan Sadlak, President of IREG Observatory

Keynote speech:

Michał Kleiber, President of the Polish Academy of Sciences (PAN) - Quest for good data and quality information: Imperative for good policy and functioning of higher education

10.00 – 11.30 First Session
Methodological Challenges in Conducting University Rankings and Institutional Classifications

Chair: Andrea Bonaccorsi, University of Pisa, Member of the Board of the National Agency for the Evaluation of Universities and Research Institutes (ANVUR), Italy

Speakers:

• Wu Yan, Center for World-Class Universities, Graduate School of Education, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China - Global Research University Profiles: Case study of interactive ranking platform of the Academic Ranking of World-class Universities (ARWU)
• Bob Morse, Director of Data Research, US News & World Report, USA - How to secure reliable data
• Ben Sowter, Head of Division, QS Intelligence Unit, Great Britain - A refined approach to global university rankings by discipline
• Isidro F. Aguillo, Head, Cybermetrics Lab, the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), Spain - Combining Webometric and bibliometric information: Web Ranking methodology under scrutiny

Discussion

11.30 – 12.00 Coffee Break

12.00 – 13.30 Second Session
New Rankings and New Methodological Approaches

Chair: Waldemar Siwinski, President, Perspektywy Education Foundation, Vice-President of IREG Observatory, Poland

Speakers:

• Gero Federkeil, Vice-President of IREG Observatory; Manager in charge of Rankings, Center for Higher Education, Germany - U-Multirank: From testing to practicing of international multi-dimensional methodology
• Lubov Zavarikina, the National Training Foundation, Russia - Key aspects and methodology for university ranking in Russia (as developed by the National Training Foundation)
• Philippe Vidal, Professor, and Ghislaine Filliatreau, Director, OST – Observatoire des Sciences et des Techniques, France - Positional impact of reputational surveys in global university rankings
• Sabine Righetti, Rogeiro Meneghini, Helio Szhwartsman, Folha de S.Paulo, Brazil - Brazil’s first university ranking: A closer look at RUF (Folha’s University Ranking), its methodology and its results

Discussion

13.30 – 15.00 Lunch

15.00 – 16.30 Third Session
How University Ranking Relates to Other Approaches for Quality Assurance and Sources of Information

Chair: Nian Cai Liu, Vice-President, IREG Observatory; Director, World-Class Universities Study Centre, Graduate School of Education, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China

Speakers:

• Benoit Millot, Lead Education Economist, The World Bank, Washington - Ranking universities versus benchmarking tertiary education systems: Why different methodologies lead to similar results?
• Fatih Omruuzun, Graduate School of Informatics, Middle East Technical University, Turkey - Usability and interface design evaluation of major gateways to science literature: Scopus and Web of Knowledge
• Serban Agachi, Professor, Babes-Bolyai University; President of the Association of Carpathian Region Universities (ACRU), Romania - Procedures and experience in verification of data on higher education institutions in Romania
• Michaela Saisana, Scientific Officer, Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the European Commission, Italy - Quality criteria for data aggregation used in academic rankings

Discussion

16.30 – 16.45 Coffee Break

16.45 – 18.15 Fourth Session
New Look at Policies, Methodologies and Practices of University Rankings

Chair: Klaus Hüfner, IREG Audit Coordinator, Germany

Speakers:

• Alex Usher, President, Higher Education Strategy Associates, Canada - New approaches to ranking research output: The experience of HESA’s Measuring Academic Research in Canada project
• Jocelyne Gacel Avila, Researcher and General Director for Internationalization at the University of Guadalajara, Mexico - The global rankings debate in Latin American higher education: A critical approach
• Maja Jokic, Kresimir Zauder and Marina Matesić, Institute for Social Research, Croatia - The importance of national ranking of universities and research institutions: Experience of “small” countries
• Niko Hyka, Avni Meshi, Edmond Mino, Public Accreditation Agency for Higher Education; and Dafina Xhako, Departament of Engineering Sciences,University “Aleksander Moisiu”, Durres, Albania - Improving the ranking model of the Albanian higher education institutions

Discussion

19:30-21:30 Conference Gala Dinner
Venue: Centralna Biblioteka Rolnicza (Agricultural Library)information, Krakowskie Przedmiescie 66

Friday, 17 May 2013

9.30 – 11.20 Fifth Session
Ranking Methodologies: Universities’ Experience and Expectations 

During these session panelists representing leading universities will reflect and comment on set of pertinent issues related to university rankings such as;

• which and why university rankings are relevant for your university;
• what is your experience with ranking organizations [prior and after ranking is produced];
• what suggestions do you have for the ranking organizations to improve methodology and presentation of rankings;
• does (if yes in which way) university rankings has influence on governance and administration of your university.

Chair: Wojciech Bieńkowski, Professor, Lazarski University, Poland

Speakers – representatives of universities (Members of IREG Observatory):

• Sergey Tunik – Saint Petersburg State University, Russia
• Stanisław Kistryn – Jagiellonian University, Poland
• Lars Uhlin – Lund University, Sweden
• Mukhambetkali (Mukash) Burkitbayev – Al-Farabi Kazakh National University, Kazakhstan
• Anne Marie Cassidy – University of Navarra, Spain

11.20 – 11.50 Coffee Break

11.50 – 13.00 Special Session and IREG Audit

Chair: Alex Usher, President, Higher Education Strategy Associates, Canada

• Lisa Colledge, Director Snowball Metrics Initiative, Elsevier, the Netherlands - Snowball Metrics: A new method of benchmarking of research-related activities
• Klaus Hüfner, Coordinator of IREG Ranking Audit, Germany and Carla Cauwenberghe, the Dutch Inspectorate for Education, the Netherlands, Auditor of IREG Ranking Audit

IREG Ranking Audit: First observations and lessons learnt

13.00 – 13.30 Closing Session and Final Discussion

Chair: Jan Sadlak, President of IREG Observatory

Also a presentation by host organization: QS Quacquarelli Symonds of IREG-7 Conference: Employability and Academic Rankings – Reflections and Impacts, 14-16 May 2014, London, United Kingdom

13.30 – 14.30 Farewell lunch

14.30 – 16.00 IREG Observatory General Assembly (closed session)

Optional post-conference events and sightseeing