OREANDA-NEWS. On 22 June 2009 was announced, that the project Compass University Ranking realized by SCM with support of Rinat Akhmetov's Foundation for Development of Ukraine had been presented at the 4th Conference of the International Rankings Expert Group (IREG-4) held on 14-16 June in Kazakhstan capital.

The conference International and National Academic Ranking: Commonalities and Differences was organized by the International Rankings Expert Group (IREG) and the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan in partnership with the European Higher Education Centre UNESCO-CEPES.

The experts and academics, officials of international organizations and media exchanged the leading expertise in the area of university ranking compilation and promotion as well as discussed the important issues, trends, methods, standards and approaches to rankings. They also talked about common features and differences between the national and international rankings developed in various countries.

The high-authority international expert and academic institutions from over 30 nations spoke at the Conference including Jan Sadlak, Director of UNESCO-CEPES and Chair of IREG/International Observatory; Jamil Salmi, Tertiary Education Coordinator at the World Bank; Waldemar Siwinski, President of Perspektywy Education Foundation (Poland); Robert J. Morse, Director of Data Research, U.S. News & World Report (USA); Michelle Asha Cooper, President of the Institute for Higher Education Policy (USA) and many others.

Natalya Krivulina, Project Manager at System Capital Management, spoke at the conference representing SCM:

"You can't overestimate the importance of this event: representatives of science and the expert community from the whole world got an excellent opportunity to share experience in making university rankings, find comprehensive answers to questions on rating indicators and rating methods, assess similarities and differences between a number of the national and international university rankings as well as see and understand their strengths and weaknesses", said Natalya Krivulina. "This consolidation of efforts and a creative and professional exchange are especially important today, when globalization is the primary trait of education”.

Natalya spoke about Compass ranking practices, the ranking compilation methods and particular features of similar projects in Ukraine.

We remind that Compass gives practical assessment of the knowledge and skills, which students can get in the Ukrainian higher education institutions. Participants of the Compass 2009 include 234 higher education institutions of the third and fourth level of accreditation, which train bachelors, specialists and masters in five major areas mostly demanded by the real economy sector: business/economy, law, engineering/technical professions, information technologies (IT) and architecture/construction.  The Ranking is based on the opinion of employers, experts and graduates. The latter component (opinion of graduates) gained a special recognition of the delegates, who, in general, highly appraised the practices of SCM in university ranking.

"We regard it as a big achievement to present the Ukrainian ranking of higher education institutions on the international scene. The high appraisal gained by Compass here, in Astana, was yet another confirmation of its importance and usefulness, and yet another evidence that our ranking is and will be an actual compass for a Ukrainian university entrant: a simple, understandable and handy tool helping make the only right decision and become a demanded specialist", added Natalia Krivulina.