24 June 2020 GENEVA, Switzerland & SEOUL, South Korea – On 11 June 2020, UNITAR participated in the launch of a new system for university ranking, the World’s Universities with Real Impact (WURI). The launch event was co-hosted in partnership with three other institutions: the Institute for Policy and Strategy on National Competitiveness (IPSNC) of South Korea, the Hanseatic League of Universities and the Franklin University of Switzerland. UNITAR was represented at this event by the Director for the Division for Multilateral Diplomacy (DMD), Mr. Rabih El-Haddad, who presented congratulatory remarks to the representative of universities from all across the globe. 

In line with the 2030 Agenda and more specifically SDG 4 on “Quality Education”, SDG 9 on “Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure” and SDG 17 on “Partnerships for the Goals”, as well as its own constant efforts to provide innovative learning solutions, UNITAR partnered in the release event of this original university ranking.  

The WURI ranking was developed by the IPSNC as an original ranking system evaluating innovative programmes implemented and supported by academic institutions worldwide. Aimed at discovering those universities which better prepare their students for the new working environment brought about by the fourth industrial revolution, WURI highlights the role of new educational paradigms and research efforts.

While traditional ranking systems heavily weigh on the quantitative metrics for evaluating universities (e.g. the number of journal publications and the employment rate of graduates), the WURI ranking accounts for qualitative factors embracing the following four key areas:  

• Industrial applications, moving away attention from the traditional focus on research papers and lecture-type teaching; 

• Value-creating startups and entrepreneurship, rather than a traditional focus on the number of jobs filled; 

• Social responsibility, ethics, and integrity, instead of knowledge and skills for material success; 

• Student mobility and openness for exchange and collaboration between schools and across national borders goes to replace the standards of an independent yet closed system. 

The WURI ranking is composed of a top 50 in each of these above-mentioned four areas, as well as the global top 100 considering all these areas simultaneously.