UofG hosts THE’s first Teaching Excellence Summit

The University has hosted the inaugural Teaching Excellence Summit in THE's world summit series at which THE launched a pilot set of rankings - The Europe Teaching Rankings 2018. Closing video In this new ranking, half of universities' overall scores are based on a student engagement survey of more than 30,000 university students. This includes questions on whether teaching supports critical thinking, whether classes challenge students and whether students have the opportunity to interact with staff. The ranking also measures student outcomes, the diversity of institutions' environments, and the resources that universities have in order to teach effectively. More than 240 universities across western and southern Europe have been ranked; the University of Glasgow was ranked 31 in Europe, 22 in the UK and 3rd in Scotland for Teaching Excellence. Opening the summit, Principal and Vice-Chancellor Professor Sir Anton Muscatelli said: "Arguably over the last few years, in international university conferences such as this, teaching has been overshadowed through an intense focus on research. Certainly in the UK, when it comes to the measurement of reputation a lot of the focus has been about the pursuit of research excellence - with Research Assessment Exercises and Research Excellence Frameworks commanding attention and demanding a big effort in terms of preparation and strategising." He added: "We are living through the 4th Industrial revolution - the pace and nature of technological change is breathtaking, its potential immense.