UOC gets top scores for its knowledge transfer, regional engagement and international orientation

The results of U-Multirank 2020 (now in its seventh year), which assesses more than 1,700 universities from 92 countries around the world, were published on Tuesday 9 June. The UOC received six A grades, in the knowledge transfer, regional engagement and international orientation categories. The results also showed that although 60% of universities had reported online learning provisions in their strategic planning prior to the coronavirus pandemic, since then it has transpired that very few were in fact able to continue their programmes fully online in order to cope with the crisis.

The six indicators for which the UOC was awarded A grades were: income from private sources and income from continuous professional development (both in the knowledge transfer category); regional joint publications, bachelor graduates working in the region, and master graduates working in the region (in the regional engagement category); and international doctorate degrees (in the international orientation category). 

The UOC was also awarded B grades for four indicators. Two of these were in the research category, for open access publications and for citation rate; one was in the international orientation category, for international academic staff, and the other was in the regional engagement category, for income from regional sources.

About U-Multirank

U-Multirank's multidimensional approach to its international ranking of higher education institutions allows users to develop their own personalised rankings, with indicators that cover five dimensions: teaching and learning, research, knowledge transfer, international orientation and regional engagement. It has been funded since 2017 by the Bertelsmann Foundation, Banco Santander and the European Commission’s Erasmus+ programme. U-Multirank is run by an independent consortium. Its various partner institutions include Fundación CYD.

The first U-Multirank ranking was conducted in 2014, covering more than 850 higher education institutions from more than 70 countries. It provided a ranking at the institutional level as a whole and at the level of specific fields of study, which in 2014 were electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, business studies and physics. Since then, its coverage of institutions and subject areas has been expanded each year. The UOC has appeared since the second year of the ranking, 2015.

A new feature of this year's ranking was the introduction of a gender balance indicator, scoring the gender balance in academic staff.