The European Higher Education Classification: Objectives and Concepts

The rationale for developing a classification of higher education institutions lies in our pursuit to better understand and use diversity in the European higher education landscape. In the previous chapters, it was pointed out that the principle of diversity is an important basis for the further development of the European higher education and research systems. In this chapter we argue why and how a European classification of higher education institutions will contribute to understanding the various types of institutions, their different missions, characteristics and provisions. In Section 4.2, we explain the objectives of the classification from the point of view of different stakeholders. Section 4.3 delves into the nature of classifying phenomena. Section 4.4 provides an introduction to the most well-known example of a higher education classification, the Carnegie Classification. In Section 4.5, we point out the design principles underlying our classification of higher education institutions. In Section 4.6, we introduce the main concepts and components of a first version of such a classification and discuss its data needs. In the final section we address the relevant use of the classification as an instrument for “institutional profiling”.