European higher education systems are coming under increasing pressure: rising international competition, growing demands for transparency, and the need for well-founded, data-driven decisions are shaping the development of higher education institutions as well as the formulation of research and education policy. Against this backdrop, access to comparable, reliable data on institutional performance is becoming increasingly important.
With the launch of the European Higher Education Observatory (EHESO) benchmarking tool, a comprehensive platform is now available for the first time that addresses precisely this need. It enables a systematic comparison of higher education institutions across Europe and supports both institutions and policy-makers in conducting well-founded analyses and designing strategic measures based on evidence.
The tool is based on integrated data from EHESO, including institutional data from national statistical offices, survey data from higher education institutions and students, and external data such as publications, patents, Erasmus+ mobility data, research indicators and other European data sources. In total, around 3,500 higher education institutions in 41 European countries are covered, creating a broad and robust basis for comparison. The platform offers two different modes of use: A compact ‘at-a-glance’ view provides quick overviews, whilst an expert view enables detailed analysis – including time series for examining developments and long-term trends.
A key element of the tool is a specially developed algorithm for selecting comparable institutions. For each university, this identifies the 15 most similar institutions based on eight key criteria, including the age and size of the institution, educational intensity, focus on Master’s and PhD programmes, subject specialisation, and the presence of a university hospital.
The benchmarking covers seven key performance areas: resources, teaching and learning, research, knowledge transfer, regional integration, international orientation, and societal challenges. The data currently available relates to the year 2022.
The AIT Austrian Institute of Technology actively contributes its expertise in data analysis and indicator development to EHESO, thereby helping to further develop evidence-based decision-making frameworks within the European higher education system.