Transparency about Multidimensional Activities and Performance: What Can U-Map and U-Multirank Contribute?

Abstract

The question of whether higher education should actively strive for transparency is all but rhetorical. Of course it should. But why is it nevertheless such a debatable issue? In this chapter I intend to show the principles and preliminary contributions of two transparency instruments that respond to much of the criticism of conventional league table rankings. To do so, I first need to make a brief excursion into the character of higher education and how that affects ideas of diversity, process and performance.