INQAAHE Talks on October 1, 2025

Benchmarking and Trust: The Evolving Relationship Between Quality Assurance and Rankings

October 1, 2025 (Wednesday)
14:00 – 15:30 CEST (UTC+2)

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This webinar will explore the evolving relationship between quality assurance in tertiary education and university rankings, focusing on their distinct roles, key differences, and potential areas for synergy and mutual reinforcement.

University rankings have become influential tools for benchmarking institutions at national, regional, and global levels, using defined parameters and metrics to indicate excellence in different areas of academic activity, often with a strong emphasis on research. Typically managed by private organisations, rankings rely on large datasets, quantifiable indicators, and expert data analysis.

Quality assurance aims to provide stakeholders with confidence that tertiary education providers meet minimum expectations of quality and academic standards, with a strong emphasis on teaching and learning. Often serving a statutory or regulatory function, quality assurance is traditionally grounded in institutional self-assessment, academic judgement by peers, and a focus on internal processes and policy implementation.

Despite their differences, both systems are converging in interesting ways. Quality assurance bodies around the world are adopting more data-informed and outcomes-based approaches, while the proliferation of rankings has prompted greater awareness of their subjective components – particularly in the selection and weighting of indicators.

Both systems, in different ways, influence student choices, shape education policy, and guide international collaboration. Notably, both are also expanding their scope to include broader dimensions of tertiary education, such as institutional impact, contributions to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), social responsibility, and evolving delivery models, such as online education.

This webinar will examine how rankings and quality assurance can coexist and complement each other, and how closer alignment might enhance trust, transparency, and impact in global tertiary education.

We will be hearing from international experts sharing their different perspectives on the topic:

• Ellen Hazelkorn, Professor Emeritus, Technological University Dublin
• Ishan Cader, Senior Director Consultancy, Times Higher Education
• Lynette G. Kisaka, Former Deputy Director Quality Audit, Kenya Commission for University Education
• Olgun Çiçek, INQAAHE Board Director

The session will be chaired by Fabrizio Trifiró, INQAAHE Board Director (EWF Programme Director).