In response to strong interest from institutions wishing to be included in the new Institutional Benchmarking Tool, which will be released in December 2025, the European Higher Education Sector Observatory (EHESO) is launching an additional data collection round. This extra round will start end November and will run until the end of February, providing institutions with another opportunity to submit data and be fully represented in the upcoming release of the tool.

The Observatory and its tools offer a number of benefits for institutions:

• Enhanced visibility and recognition
  Participation in EHESO increases an institution’s visibility at European level. As EHESO is embedded in the European Commission’s official National Policies Platform, contributing data allows institutions to showcase their strengths, achievements and profiles to policymakers, researchers and prospective students.
• Benchmarking and self-assessment
  The EHESO Institutional Benchmarking Tool—a visual multidimensional presentation with a so called “sunburst”—enables universities to benchmark their performance against peers across Europe and OECD countries. More information is available here: Benchmarking Tool for Higher Education Institutions
• Internationalisation and collaboration
  EHESO supports universities in identifying potential partners for cooperation, including joint programmes, research collaborations and student exchanges, strengthening their role within a Europe-wide community of practice.
• Student recruitment and retention
  By contributing data that feed into the future European Student Hub, universities can present comparable information to prospective students, supporting informed decision-making and enhancing recruitment.
• Policy influence and advocacy
  Participation enables institutions to contribute to European-level higher education monitoring. Access to reliable data allows universities to engage more effectively in national and European policy discussions. 

Overall, participation in the European Higher Education Sector Observatory offers universities a wide range of benefits, from increased visibility and recognition to improved benchmarking, internationalisation and stronger engagement in higher education policy development.

What does participation require from institutions?

All higher education institutions in Europe (ETER countries) are automatically included in the EHESO Data Centre. To minimise redundant data collection, EHESO builds on data from national statistical offices—existing ETER datasets form the foundation of the EHESO Data Centre.

For additional, innovative indicators, e.g. external research revenues, green courses and dropout rates, data must be collected directly from institutions. These datasets are gathered through surveys based on the established U-Multirank approach. Full indicator coverage in the EHESO tools is only possible with active participation in these surveys.

Institutions can register for the data collection via our online registration form.

Community of Practice for EHESO data coordinators

Are you interested in the data collection in EHESO and the Benchmarking Tool for 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 institutional benchmarking tool.
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.