IREG 2020 Beijing Conference

University rankings in the time of uncertainty

Times are in Greenwich Mean Time (GMT)

Tuesday, 20 October

9:00-9:15 OPENING

  • Luiz Costa, President, IREG Observatory on Academic Ranking and Excellence
  • Liu Gonghui, President, Beijing University of Technology

09:15 – 10:30 First Session
Impact of COVID-19 on higher education (the landscape of higher education emerging from under the pressure of COVID-19)

Moderator: Ellen Hazelkorn, International HE Expert (Ireland)
Speakers:

  • Hans De Wit, Boston College (USA)
  • Fu Guo, Beijing University of Technology (China)
  • Mirko Degli Esposti, Bologna University (Italy)
  • Jacob Stoustrup, Aalborg University (Denmark)

10.30 – 10.45 break

10:45 – 11:45 Second Session
Global rankings (part one)

(the state of arts of the main four global rankings; emphasis on expected changes in methodology in the wake of the Covid-19 impact on the higher education)
THE, QS, US News, ARWU

Moderator: Luiz Costa, IREG President (Brazil)

Speakers:

  • Robert Morse, US News Global (USA)
  • Ben Sowter, QS Rankings (UK)
  • Lu Wang, Shanghai Ranking (China)
  • Phil Baty, THE World Academic Ranking (UK)

11.45 – 12.00 break

12:00 – 13:00 Third Session
Future of excellence initiatives in the “new reality”

(international cooperation in research has been an important component of excellence initiative’s, will limitations on travel affect them?)

Moderator: Lauritz B. Holm-Nielsen, President, Denmark Foundation to Nature

Speakers:

  • Simon Gaskell, UK Quality Assurance Agency (UK)
  • Michael Matlosz, EuroScience (France)
  • Isak Frumin, Higher School of Economics (Russia)
  • Jaroslaw Bosy, Wroclaw University od Life Sciences (Poland)

13:00 – 13:15 break

13:15 – 13:45 Special Session
THE Impact Ranking

Speaker:

  • Phil Baty, THE Chief knowledge officer (UK)

Wednesday, 21 October

9:00 – 10:00 Fourth Session
Global rankings (part two)

(the state of the arts of other global rankings; emphasis on expected changes in methodology in the wake of the Covid-19 impact on the higher education) U-Multirank, Three Mission Ranking, CWTS Leiden, Webometrics

Moderator: Waldemar Siwinski, IREG Vice-President (Poland)

Speakers:

  • Isidro F. Aguillo, Webometrics (Spain)
  • Ludo Waltman, Leiden Ranking (Netherlands)
  • Gero Federkeil, U-Multirank (Germany)
  • Dmitry Grishankov/Kirill Ivanov, Three University Mission (Russia)

10.00 – 10.15 break

10:15 – 11:30 Fifth Session
National rankings: the state of arts and expected changes with special attention to methodology due to COVID-19

National academic rankings represent a well-established feature of higher education landscape. Due to pandemic COVID-19 this landscape is now forced to reassessment. The effects of this dramatic development are affecting higher education all over the world. It is too early to assess full impact of the “new normal” on our society, it is clear that it is the time to rethink how universities work and what the roles within them should be. There is no doubt that relevant scientific research and flexible teaching will represent an important part of their profile of higher education institutions and programs in the future. Those features will be key aspect of success in the academic rankings. Making this part of methodology of rankings during the pandemic represent added challenge of the COVID-19 crisis. It is indented that this session will be an opportunity to examine proposed changes undertaken by a number of national rankings.

Moderator: Jan Sadlak, former IREG President (France)

Speakers:

  • John O’Leary, The Times Good University Guide (the United Kingdom)
  • Raghu Raman, Amrita University (India)
  • Sonja Berghoff, CHE University Ranking (Germany)
  • Stanisław Kistryn, Perspektywy University Ranking – Evolution of its methodology from the university perspective (Poland)
  • Samile Andréa de Souza Vanz, University rankings in Brazil (Brazil)

11:30 – 11:45 Special Presentation Elsevier
Research resilience in uncertain times

Speaker:

  • M’hamed el Aisati, Vice President, Elsevier

11:45 – 12:00 break

12:00 – 12:45 Sixth Session
Dialog – Impact of COVID-19 on rankings

(discussion of experts on changes COVID-19 may bring to global and national rankings)

  • Alex Usher (Canada)
  • Richard Holmes (UK/Malaysia)

12:45 – 13:00 IREG Medal Award Ceremony

Introduction: Luiz Costa
Laudatio: Waldemar Siwinski
Honorary Medal Recipient: Isidro F. Aguillo

13:00 – 13:15 CLOSING

Luiz Costa, President, IREG Observatory