The ranking is composed of two levels of evalution: evaluation of the universities (state universities and private universities) as a whole and evaluation of student career progression and internationalization. The latter is made having as observed points: the 47 three-year degree classes (bachelor’s degrees), subsequently grouped into 15 disciplinary groups; the 93 two-year degree classes (master’s degrees), subsequently grouped into 14 subject areas; the segment of single-cycle degree courses (7 subject areas) equivalent to master’s degrees, in some way similar to the old faculties.

EVALUATION OF THE UNIVERSITIES AS A WHOLE

• Services: number of meals provided/enrolled students; number of places and accommodation/enrolled students resident outside the region;
• Grants: contributions from universities and Right to Education Agencies for interventions in favor of students and scholarships/degree awards/study awards with private financing/total of students enrolled;
• Structures: classroom-seats/enrolled students; library-seats/enrolled students; scientific laboratory-seats/enrolled students; positive judgment awarded by graduates, referring to classrooms, study rooms, computer laboratories and libraries;
• Communication and digital services: score resulting from the analysis of the characteristics and functionalities of the university websites, their respective official social profiles and the response efficiency returned by these channels;
• Internationalization: foreign students/total of enrolled students; students who have spent a period abroad for study or internship/ total of enrolled students, net of matriculated students; foreign students who have spent a period of study at the university/total of enrolled students; expenditure by universities and Right to Education Agencies in favor of international student mobility/total of enrolled students, net of matriculated students; the share of courses offered in English and double degree or joint degree courses
• Employability: employment rate of graduates in the year (bachelors and masters degree) one year after graduation. 

State universities have been divided into five groups on the basis of the number of the enrolled students in the academic year of reference obtained from the processing carried out by the Statistical Office of the Ministry of University and Research on data from the National Registry of University Students. Private universities are divided into three groups based on the number of students enrolled in the in the academic year of reference. 

STUDENT CAREER PROGRESSION AND INTERNATIONALIZATION, BY SUBJECT AREAS

• Persistence rate between the first and second year (this indicator is not taken into consideration for the groupings of the two-year master’s degree classes);
• Regular enrollment rate;
• Graduates regularity rate; 
• Mobility of outgoing students (students who have spent a period of study abroad funded through the Erasmus program or other international mobility programs;
• Foreign host universities (number of foreign universities / structures that hosted Erasmus students or students who participated in other international mobility programs);
• Foreign students.

Note: Until 2017 the Ranking was named the University Guide Censis and Repubblica, and it was developed in cooperation with the national newspaper “La Repubblica”.