The International Collaboration Department (ICD) staff at Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute attended the fifth meeting of the Task Force Benchmark within the CESAER association (Conference of European Schools for Advanced Engineering Education and Research) that took place fully online on 3 June 2025.
Peter Elspass, Head of University Development and Controlling at Leibniz University Hannover, opened the meeting with a welcoming address, after which Task Force members adopted the draft minutes of the last meeting and the current agenda.
One of the key agenda items was an update on the European Higher Education Sector Observatory (EHESO) platform. Regarding key achievements in 2024, Peter Elspass cited the start of analytical activities, the launch of the institutional and student survey data collection, and communication activities of EHESO including the newsletter and regular editorial board. Among key objectives for this year are the publication of European Tertiary Education Register (ETER) data including extensions with patent information, and the integration of institutional and student survey results into the data centre.
The meeting then turned to EngiRank. Touko Närhi, Advisor for Benchmark & Higher Education, and Peter Elspass presented the main recommendations from the draft input note on Engirank. Developed in partnership with Elsevier, EngiRank serves as a tool to compare the quality of engineering and technology programmes offered by universities across all 27 EU countries, as well as Norway and Switzerland. Peter Elspass pointed out CESAER’s influential voice in the evaluation of this ranking. Although its indicators are relatively clear, their weightings should be more transparent. Touko Närhi added that a small follow-up meeting with the EngiRank team would be arranged sometime soon.
In the second part of the meeting, Touko Närhi provided a presentation on the suggested Bucharest workshop titled ‘Exploring performance assessment of European Universities alliances and universities of science & technology.’ Task Force members brainstormed the potential workshop in Bucharest. Upcoming events were confirmed, including the sixth in-person meeting of Task Force Benchmark 2024-2025 in Bucharest on 11-12 September 2025, hosted by the University POLITEHNICA of Bucharest, and CESAER Annual Meetings 2025, taking place at Brno University of Technology on 22-24 October 2025. Touko Närhi announced that full details of the Annual Meetings programme and registration would be provided later in June.
Rounding out the meeting was a brainstorming session on Task Force activities and priorities for 2026-2027, Peter Elspass gave brief update on his vision for the Task Force. In particular, Peter Elspass said that he would go over to co-chairing with Johan Blaus from the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm. He also suggested renaming the Task Force Benchmark “Task Force Performance Assessment” because the term “benchmark” has a very narrow meaning. Peter Elspass emphasised that AI and its role for institutional research in higher education institutions would be the centrepiece of the work plan for 2026-2027.