Encouraging your university to signup to More Than Our Rank

The International Network of Research Management Societies (INORMS) Research Evaluation Group (REG) was established in 2018 to promote fairer and more responsible assessment of academic research and institutions. To support this ambition, the INORMS More Than Our Rank initiative was launched in October 2022.

More Than Our Rank is an opportunity to redefine what institutional success looks like,
by enabling universities to celebrate their many and varied activities, achievements and
ambitions that are not captured by global university rankings.

Participation in More Than Our Rank is for institutions rather than individuals, and
therefore requires agreement from institutional leaders. As brokering conversations
about public commitments can be difficult, the REG have drafted the following guidance
to help you to leverage support for More Than Our Rank within your organisation.

Why should your institution participate?

• You get to describe your ambitions, activities, and achievements in full
  Signatories to More Than Our Rank get to define their successes on their own terms in
  line with their own institutional missions and ambitions. This opportunity allows
  institutions to step away from the limited definitions of quality and excellence of
  national and international rankings and celebrate what is meaningful to you and your
  communities.
• It can co-exist with the university rankings
  Some institutions are well-served by the global rankings and want to celebrate their
  ranking successes. There is no requirement that signatories to More Than Our Rank
  stop using the rankings, but only that they also highlight what they have more to offer
  that is not captured by the rankings – something with which even the rankings would
  agree! (See our supporting organisations).
• You get to live up to your principles on:

• Responsible research assessment: Many higher education institutions (HEIs)
  have signed DORA or adopted other principles of responsible research
  assessment. These encourage a move away from narrowly-focussed and
  poorly-constructed indicators of success towards more value-led and
  qualitative approaches. More Than Our Rank is formally supported by DORA,
  CWTS Leiden, the Latin American Forum on Scientific Evaluation (CLACSO
  FOLEC) and others, as a way of delivering on institutional principles of
  responsible research assessment.
• Equity, diversity & inclusion (EDI): Rankings use a model of institutional
  success that favours large, old, wealthy, English-speaking, research-intensive
  institutions in the global north. Whilst these institutions are great, they are not
  INORMS Research Evaluation Group https://inorms.net/more-than-our-rank/
  the only ‘flavour’ of higher education. Such a model tends to exclude whole
  regions (e.g., Latin America, Africa) from ranking highly and as such cannot be
  seen to be inclusive. More Than Our Rank seeks to provide a much broader
  and inclusive definition of institutional success and by participating institutions
  are celebrating diversity and promoting inclusivity.
• Collaboration: Many HEIs prize collaboration with other institutions as a key
  way of delivering on their research ambitions. However, rankings are
  inherently competitive. They are a zero-sum game. When an institution
  celebrates breaking into the top 100, they are actually celebrating another
  institution dropping out. More Than Our Rank is inherently collaborative
  rather than competitive. All institutions have an equal opportunity to highlight
  their strengths and to join collaboratively with others doing the same.

• You will get recognition for your commitment
  The INORMS Research Evaluation Group regularly promotes new signatories on social
  media and through other channels. This helps both to celebrate that institution’s
  achievements as listed in their statement but also provides recognition to institutions
  for living out their commitment to responsible research assessment, equity, diversity,
  and inclusion.
• You will be proactive in meeting expectations of funding agencies
  Many research funding organisations including the Global Research Council, the
  European Commission, and UK Research & Innovation (UKRI) are developing
  approaches to evaluating research more responsibly, and they are expecting the
  organisations they fund to do the same. A good number of research funders have
  signed up to the Coalition on Advancing Research Assessment (CoARA) Agreement on
  Reforming Research Assessment which has as one of its four core commitments the
  need to avoid using rankings in the assessment of researchers. The independent
  review of priorities in UK research assessment listed as one of its ten
  recommendations the need for institutions to engage more responsibly with
  university rankings, including considering signing up to More Than Our Rank.
• You’ll be in good company
  More institutions are signing up to More Than Our Rank every week from all over the
  world. And a wide range of organisations have endorsed the initiative, such as the
  European University Association, Latin American Forum on Scientific Evaluation,
  Science Europe, and the European Consortium of Innovative Universities.
• It’s free!
  There is no cost to signing up to More Than Our Rank.
• It’s simple
  a) Sign up via the INORMS More Than Our Rank web page;
  b) Write a statement describing how you are more than your rank;
  c) Add this statement and the MTOR logo to your web page.
  
• That’s it!
  INORMS Research Evaluation Group https://inorms.net/more-than-our-rank/
  
• Addressing institution concerns
  Does this mean we’d have to stop promoting our ranking position?
  No. Institutions are free to promote their ranking successes. More Than Our
  Rank just highlights how much more institutions have to offer, whether they do
  well in the rankings or not.
  
• Isn’t this just for those who have a “poor” or no ranking?
  No. More Than Our Rank is for all institutions and highly ranked, mid-ranked
  and yet-to-rank organisations are signing up.
  
• Will there be pushback from ranking organisations?
  Most ranking agencies are open about the limited dimensions of university
  activity that they represent and how their rankings only provide one view of an
  institution. Indeed, some provide links out to institutional websites to provide
  context for their ranking scores. Two ranking agencies, CWTS Leiden and
  UMultirank, are official supporters of More Than Our Rank as they see no
  conflict of ambition.
  
• What if we want to change our statement?
  That’s absolutely fine. Universities are dynamic organisations and so their
  More Than Our Rank statements can be updated with new ambitions,
  activities, and achievements at any time.

INORMS Research Evaluation Group
February 2023