"U-Multirank" is an opposition to the currently widely used ranking systems, based on the lining up of the universities. "U-Multirank" gives the opportunity to compare higher education institutions according to the different criteria of the relevant consumers. The "U-Multirank" assesses the activities of higher education institutions and universities in accordance with thirty-one activity criteria, grouped into five areas: studies, scientific research, knowledge transfer, international orientation and influence to the region. Each criteria in five score's scale, ranges from "very well" to "weak". VGTU, VU, KTU, VDU, MRU, Klaipeda University (KU), Lithuanian Sports University (LSU) are listed on the ''U-Multirank'' system.
"On the basis of statistics of rating developers, only eight percent of all higher education institutions have got more than ten highest estimates, so VGTU achievements - top ten ratings - are very high. Fifty percent of all universities received from one to five highest ratings, so most of the universities of Lithuania demonstrated much better results than half of all higher education institutions," - said Asta Radzevičienė, the Vice-rector for International Relations.
They assessed Lithuanian higher education institutions by the best score for the regional engagement. Even four from seven participating in the rating Lithuanian universities received the highest score for the Bachelor employment (VGTU, KTU, VU and KU). The Lithuanian universities received the highest scores for the Master graduates' integration to the labour market: all universities, except VDU, received the maximum score.
This rating is an important tool for the future students, for business enterprises and for the universities all over the world, because it reveals strengths and weaknesses as well as differences of the universities. After the ranking, it is clear that there is no one excellent university: only a few universities in the world received the highest scores in a number of areas of activity.
More than a half (about sixty percent) of VGTU indicators are assessed "very well" or "well". In addition to the regional engagement, the highest position in the ranking our University received for the research citations in the top cited scientific publications, the spins-off, the art related output, the income from private and regional sources, the Bachelor studies in English and the students' mobility as well as income for the continuing professional development.
They assessed eight hundred seventy higher education institutions last year and more than one thousand two hundred higher education institutions from eighty-three countries were assessed this year. They also assessed more than one thousand eight hundred faculties and seven thousand five hundred study programms. They collected information for the ranking from the international rankings biblio-metric and patent databases, higher education institutions, supporting the initiative, presented the data and conducted more than eighty five thousand student surveys. Centre for Higher Education Policy Studies (CHEPS), Centre for Higher Education (CHE), company for Science Popularization "Elsevier", and other partners participated in the ranking development.
