Identifying the Best: The CHE Excellence Ranking of European Graduate Programmes in the Natural Sciences and Mathematics

The Centre for Higher Education Development (CHE) has designed a ‘Ranking of Excellent European Graduate Programmes’. In its first round, in December 2007, this ranking concentrated on the natural sciences and mathematics. The centre applied a two‐step approach for analysis. First, four general indicators were identified for European universities. Second, for those universities that excelled in at least three out of these four indicators which means that they achieved a gold or silver medal, an in‐depth analysis was run based on institutional questionnaires and on‐line surveys. The results show that Europe in general provides a very high level of research and graduate teaching in the academic fields that were analysed. It is intended to apply this approach to other academic fields in the near future.