Times Higher Education confirms another record: the Alma Mater is the first ranking Italian university in the European top 100 for “Teaching Excellence”
For the tenth consecutive year, the ranking of Italian universities drawn up by Censis (Centre for Social Investment Studies) lists the University of Bologna in first place among mega universities, that is, those with more than 40,000 students. This record demonstrates once again that the Alma Mater is committed to offering services to its students. In fact, the indicators that measure international opportunities, the quality of university facilities and the focus on communication activities and digital services show excellent results. Among Italian mega universities, the University of Bologna is the only one that exceeds the 90-point threshold in the overall evaluation (the final average is 90.8), which this year also features a new indicator of employability, i.e. the number of graduates employed one year after graduating with a second-cycle degree.
‘Despite the fact that rankings are a useful tool as an initial orientation and that they do not take into account the university learning experience as a whole, we are extremely pleased to see that the Alma Mater once again ranks first among the other Italian mega universities,’ commented Rector Francesco Ubertini. ‘This result encourages us to continue along the path we have taken in recent years. As far as the future of Italian universities is concerned, international aspects and teaching innovation will play an increasingly important role: we need to focus on new teaching methods that engage students.’
In fact, the University of Bologna has achieved another record in Italy with regard to teaching, this time certified by Times Higher Education. The British magazine, which publishes one of the world's most well-known and prestigious rankings, has recently presented a new ranking listing the best universities in Europe for teaching quality. In the European top 100 for “Teaching Excellence”, the Alma Mater ranks first among Italian universities, followed by the Polytechnic University of Milan and the University of Siena (there are five Italian universities in total).
The key strength of the University of Bologna is the “Outcomes” indicator, according to which the University of Bologna ranks tenth in Europe. This indicator evaluates the results of teaching activities, which measure academic reputation, the percentage of graduates and students’ development of competencies that are useful for their professional career.
Students are the protagonists of this special ranking: in fact, Times Higher Education has collected the opinions of 125,000 students enrolled in universities in 18 countries across Europe and asked them to rate their university by taking various aspects into consideration: university life, collaborative learning, development of critical thinking and the application of learning to the real world. The results obtained were then used in conjunction with the other traditional ranking indicators to create the final ranking.