International Observatory on Academic Ranking and Excellence

Berlin Principles of IREG

IREG Observatory: University Rankings under scrutiny

(Warsaw, March 8, 2010). The first General Assembly of the IREG Observatory on Academic Ranking and Excellence met in Warsaw, March 8, 2010. This new global organization based in Warsaw was established in October, 2010; its goal is the improvement of the quality of international and national ranking of higher education institutions. Considering the increasing importance of rankings among future students, and fact that rankings influence financial decisions of government bodies responsible for higher education, the organization decided to carry out, on request, audit of some leading international rankings in order to find out if they meet the highest methodology standards.

The IREG group (International Ranking Expert Group) met for the first time in Warsaw in 2002 (IREG-0). The following IREG conferences and meetings took place in Washington DC in 2004 (IREG-1), Berlin in 2006 (IREG-2), Shanghai in 2007 (IREG-3) and in Astana in 2009 (IREG-4). The next conference (IREG-5) will be in Berlin in October, 2010, and the following (IREG-6) in Taipei.

The growing importance of university rankings and drive to improve their quality caused the loose organizational structure to strengthen itself by transforming into an international association under the name “IREG Observatory on Academic Ranking and Excellence” registered in Brussels (under the Belgian Law friendly towards international organizations) but with its secretariat in Warsaw. By choosing Warsaw international rankers community expressed appreciation for quality of rankings done by Perspektywy Education Foundation and its international activity in this field.

The IREG Observatory’s Executive Committee is led by President, dr Jan Sadlak and vice presidents: prof. Nian Cai Liu of Jiao Tong University (China), the author of renown Shanghai Ranking, Gero Federkeil of Centre for Higher Education Development (Germany) and Waldemar Siwinski of Perspektywy Education Foundation (Poland). Bob Morse of the “US News & World Report”, the author of the famous American rankings, is one of the founders of IREG Observatory (www.ireg-observatory.org) .

The audit criteria of university rankings adopted in Warsaw have been based foremost on the so called Berlin Principles established at the IREG-2 conference in Berlin. Those rankings that will positively pass the audit will be entitled to use “IREG Recognized” label.

Additional information: dr Kazimierz Bilanow, Managing Director, IREG Observatory,

e-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it , tel. +4822 628 58 62

IREG - a brief history

IREG (International Ranking Expert Group) emerged as a joint initiative of UNESCO European Centre for Higher Education (UNESCO-CEPES) and a group of international ranking experts concerned with the quality of academic ranking during a meeting in Warsaw in 2002 (IREG-0).

Consecutive international IREG conferences took place in:

- Washington in 2004 IREG-1 (organized with the support of UNECSO-CEPES and the Insititute for Higher Education Policy)

- Berlin in 2006 IREG-2 (organized with the support of UNESCO-CEPES and the CHE-Centre of Higher Education Development)
generally considered the guidelines for quality ranking.

- Shanghai in 2007 IREG-3 (organized with the support of UNESCO-CEPES and Jiao Tong University)

- Astana in 2008 IREG-4 (organized with the support of UNESCO-CEPES and the Ministry of Education and Science of Kazakhstan)

The next IREG-5 conference will be held in Berlin, October 6-8, 2010 (with the support of CHE-Centre for Higher Education Development and the German Federal Ministry of Research and Higher Education). The following IREG-6 conference has been tentatively scheduled for 2012 in Taipei.

The IREG group transformed itself into an international non-profit association IREG Observatory on Academic Ranking and Excellence in October 2009, and registered in Brussels under the Belgian law. IREG Observatory is secretariat located in Warsaw.

In addition to bi-annual global IREG conferences, IREG Observatory will conduct every year international seminars. The next such event will be a “round table” on ranking of humanities and social sciences in Warsaw, March 8, 2010.