A great success for Paris Lodron University Salzburg. In the annual international university comparison “U-Multirank”, published on 21 September, the PLUS ranked among the top seven universities nationally, improving on the previous year. The PLUS scored well in the areas of “international organisations” and “research”, receiving 10 category A ratings.

U Multirank provides information on almost 2000 higher education institutions from 97 countries. In Austria, 26 universities (16 universities, 10 UAS) were evaluated. U-Multirank is not a classic ranking system but compiles university performance profiles. The ranking system “compares university performance across teaching and learning, research, knowledge transfer, international orientation and regional engagement” ( www.umultirank.org). This performance is assessed through 29 descriptive indicators, graded from ‘A’ (very good) to ‘E’ (weak) across the different areas.

The PLUS improved its ranking by 2 A-scores from 8 to 10. The PLUS received the most “very good” grades for research and international orientation.

‘A’ grades were awarded for the following indicators „topcited publications“, “interdisciplinary publications”, “post-doc positions”, “professional publications”, “Open Access Publications”, “student mobility”, “international academic staff”, “international joint publications”, “international doctorate degrees”.

The European Commission initiated U-Multirank in 2014 with the aim of creating an internationally compatible multi-dimensional ranking. U-Multirank is independent and web-based. The universities actively participate in the ranking and provide data. Publication and citation data are collected from Web of Science (Thomson Reuters). Additional student surveys are carried out to rank departments and study programmes.