CEU Ranked Before Oxford, Corvinus Ranked Before the University of Vienna
11.12.2009.At the beginning of November Die Zeit published the ranking list of the Centre for Higher Education Development (CHE), assessing almost four thousand European higher education institutions. Outstanding universities are marked with stars in each category, and the Department of Political Science of the Central European University (CEU) has collected five of these in the field of political science, while the program of the Oxford University, for example, only got two. In the category of economics, the Doctoral School of the Corvinus University of Budapest got three stars. The primary aspects in the compilation of the list were research and international activity.
The aim of the ranking is to help students who want to complete a Master or Doctoral program in finding the educational institution that best suits them. The CHE has examined nearly 4000 European institutions by a number of dimensions. The best universities are rewarded with stars, and stars were given to the highest ranking institutions that achieved 50% of the total performance. The universities that achieved at least two stars were eligible to the Excellence Group. The Development Centre compiled its ExcellenceRanking in the fields of biology, chemistry, mathematics, physics, political science, psychology and economics this year, mainly assessing the research strengths and the level of internationality at European higher education institutions.
There are two Hungarian universities in the lists: the Doctoral School of Corvinus University within the field of economics (with three stars), and the Department of Political Science of CEU within the field of political science (with five stars). The total number of universities in the club of the most excellent on the list for political science is 52: twenty departments got 2 stars, 11 got three, 10 got four, 7 got five and 4 got six.
Only Four Universities got Ahead of CEU
While the Department of Political Science of CEU achieved excellent results, some renowned Western European institutions with long traditions have stayed behind the Hungarian institution. "Openness and modernity were measured on the scales this time, and these are factors by which institutions often building on their traditions stay behind " - as the Head of the Department explained the situation. He also added: these universities rely on their traditions instead of innovative solutions. The crew compiling the list only found four departments in Europe that exceeded the one in Budapest: the Trinity College of Dublin, the European University Institute of Florence, the British University of Warwick, and one more institution from the insular country, the University of York exceeded the Hungarian program. On the other hand, the universities of Amsterdam, Belfast, Bologna, Frankfurt and even Oxford got less than five stars.
Corvinus Beats the University of Vienna with its Three-Star Resul
In the field of economics, the Doctoral School of Corvinus University got its stars for the Erasmus Mundus Master's programs and the fields of student and instructor mobility, while interestingly neither the University of Birmingham, nor Cambridge or Oxford were acknowledged in these aspects. Among the 71 institutions ranked, results weaker than that of the Corvinus University were achieved by the University of Bristol, the Stockholm institution, and even the University of Vienna only got two stars: for its participation in the Erasmus Mundus Master's programs and for the number of publications.
The aspects used for drawing up the ranking list included: the number of publications, citations, most cited book, Erasmus Master's program opportunity, the number of international professors and students. Among the apects were the educational materials suitable for international use, the number of international students and instructors and the general educational conditions.
In addition to the criteria comprising the ranking, the list prepared by the CHE includes a lot of information that was not part of compiling the ranking, such as the size of the department, the conditions of admission, and the details of the academic program. A special feature of the ranking is that it enables targeted search among research groups. The ranking list is available here.
