CHE Centre for Higher Education Development gGmbH Verler Str. 6 D-33332 Gütersloh Telephone: ++49 (0) 5241 97 61 0 Telefax: ++49 (0) 5241 9761 40 E-Mail:info@che.deInternet:www.che.deISSN 1862-7188 ISBN 978-3-941927-07-0
Working Paper No 137October 2010
Identifying the Best: The CHE ExcellenceRanking 2010
The CHE Centre for Higher Education Development has designed an “ExcellenceRanking”, a ranking of a selected group of European Universities. The CHE applied a two-step approach for analysis. First, all European departments in the surveyed fields were compared by a few general indicators. Second, for those departments that excelled in these indicators, an in-depth analysis was run based on an institutional questionnaire and a student survey.
The first issue of the ranking, released in 2007, concentrated on the natural sciences and mathematics. The second issue, released in 2009, was dedicated to economics, political science and psychology. In 2010, the study was repeated for the natural sciences. This paper covers the results from the 2009 and 2010 issues.
Genesis and Philosophy.............................................................................................5 Target Groups ............................................................................................................6 Basic Methodology .....................................................................................................7 Preselection................................................................................................................7 In-Depth Analysis .....................................................................................................11 Results of the Preselection.......................................................................................13 Country level ............................................................................................................13 Findings on the University Level ..............................................................................15 Distribution of Excellence Group Placements across Universities ...........................15 Findings for the Single Subjects ...............................................................................21 Biology (2010) ..........................................................................................................21 Chemistry (2010) ......................................................................................................24 Economics (2009) ....................................................................................................26 Mathematics (2010)..................................................................................................30 Physics (2010)..........................................................................................................32 Political Science (2009) ............................................................................................36 Psychology (2009)....................................................................................................39 Results of the In-Depth-Analysis ..............................................................................41 Institutional Survey ...................................................................................................41 Proportion of International Staff and Students .........................................................42 Proportion of Female Staff and Students .................................................................43 Students’ Judgements ..............................................................................................43 References ...............................................................................................................48