Benchmarking Tool for Higher Education Institutions - Expert view
What is the EHESO Benchmarking Tool for Higher Education Institutions?
The EHESO Benchmarking Tool for Higher Education Institutions helps institutional leaders, policy makers, academics and students to explore key characteristics of higher education institutions (HEIs) across Europe and beyond, and to benchmark them against similar institutions on a range of dimensions:
- Resources
- Teaching & learning
- Research outputs
- Knowledge transfer
- International orientation
- Regional engagement
- Societal challenges
This strengthens institutional research capacity and supports better strategic management, performance monitoring and quality enhancement, while fostering transparency and trust between HEIs and the wider public.
What information does the Benchmarking Tool for Higher Education Institutions provide?
The tool offers two complementary interfaces:
- ‘At a glance’ view provides instant benchmarking of a selected focal higher education institution (HEI) against predefined peers and performance dimensions, using a bespoke EHESO similarity algorithm. This view offers limited user customisation: it allows the user to select the focal HEI and several additional HEIs of choice.
- Expert view enables in-depth analysis with extensive user-led customisation of the selected institutions, performance dimensions and visual analytical tools.
By combining an easy-access ‘at a glance’ interface with the expert version, the new EHESO Benchmarking Tool for Higher Education Institutions caters to a broad audience of users. Both of these views allows the users to download the data on the main performance dimensions beyond the visuals for further analysis.
The tool both provides information to HEIs themselves on how their performance can be further enhanced and signals the key characteristics and strengths of an institution to potential students. The tool also allows institutions and students to compare HEIs performance with similar institutions and the wider public to compare a selected group of HEIs.
In addition, this tool gives an opportunity for the national and EU policy makers to better understand the situation of national higher education systems at institutional level. This tool is essential in gaining insights about the European higher education sector beyond the available national and EU level data and information available on the European Higher Education Sector Scoreboard.
This Benchmarking Tool for Higher Education Institutions builds upon the methodological work previously performed in the predecessor U- Multirank project. In EHESO the multidimensional benchmarking has been enhanced with some unique information on societal challenges, such as diversity and inclusion, as well as digital transformation and green transformation.
Community of Practice for EHESO data coordinators
Are you interested in providing feedback and guidance on the EHESO Benchmarking Tool for Higher Education Institutions? – Why not join the Community of Practice (CoP) for institutional data coordinators?
The Community of Practice is a collaborative space for institutional data coordinators involved in EHESO. It supports peer exchange, mutual learning, and dialogue around the development of EHESO tools and processes, including the EHESO Benchmarking Tool for Higher Education Institutions. By joining the Community of Practice, members can:
- Stay informed about EHESO developments and updates
- Stay connected with colleagues from other institutions
- Exchange ideas and experiences with fellow data coordinators
- Receive timely news and practical guidance on EHESO processes
- Contribute with ideas, feedback, and good practices
Hosted on Microsoft Teams within the European Commission’s environment, the CoP offers access to discussions, shared resources, and webinars. It aims to foster dialogue on data quality and coordination, collect input on EHESO processes, and promote the use of benchmarking tools and good practices across institutions.
Interested in joining? If you are an institutional data coordinator from a participating EHESO institution and would like to join the Community of Practice, please register here.