U-Multirank provides a multi-dimensional, user-driven approach to international ranking of HEIs both on the institutional and the field level. It compares the performance of universities in the five dimensions:  teaching and learning, research, knowledge transfer, international orientation and regional engagement. The performance of a university on each dimension is represented by a number of indicators. U-Multirank does not provide league tables. Institutions are ranked into five different performance groups (rank groups A through E, with A expressing “very good” and E “weak” performance) for each of some 30 different indicators. The rank groups refer to the distance of the indicator score of an individual institution to the average – or rather the median – performance of all institutions that U-Multirank has data for.   The choice of indicators is heavily based on the earlier U-Multirank feasibility study and adapted to include suggestions made by various stakeholders and U-Multirank’s Advisory Board.

The U-Multirank web tool enables comparisons at the level of the university as a whole and at the level of specific study programmes. Based on empirical data, U-Multirank compares institutions with similar institutional profiles (‘like-with-like’). The principle of U-Multirank is that universities should only be compared when their purposes and activity profiles are sufficiently similar. First, universities with broadly similar profiles have to be identified by the user, based on indicators expressing particular characteristics of the university and its activities. This “like-with-like” selection is based on “mapping Indicators”, for instance expressing the size, scope, age or features of a university’s activity profile. Second, a ranking of “like with like” institutions is made by the user with the option of narrowing down the selection of institutions to particular countries. U-Multirank therefore leaves it to the user to produce her/his own list of universities (or university fields), showing the performance on a selection of indicators.

While using the U-Multirank web tool, a user can compare universities by the following measures in the five dimensions:

Teaching & Learning: Bachelor graduation rate, Masters graduation rate, Graduating on time (Bachelor), Graduating on time (Masters).

Research: Citation rate, Research publications (absolute numbers), Research publications (size-normalised), External research income, Art related output, Top cited publications, Interdisciplinary publications, Post-doc positions, Strategic research partnership, Professional publications, Open Access Publications.

Knowledge Transfer: Co-publications with industrial partners, Income from private sources, Patents awarded (absolute numbers), Patents awarded (size-normalised), Industry co-patents, Spin-offs, Publications cited in patents, Income from continuous professional development, Graduate companies.

International Orientation: Foreign language bachelor programmes, Foreign language master programmes, Student mobility, International academic staff, International joint publications, International doctorate degrees.

Regional Engagement: Bachelor graduates working in the region, Master graduates working in the region, Student internships in the region, Regional joint publications, Income from regional sources, Regional publications with industrial partners.

On an institution’s profile page, an easy-to-view sunburst chart is available for users to see the performance scores of the respective institution. The sunburst is downloadable and can be used to give an at-a-glance picture of an institution’s performance on the institutional level.