The EHESO Benchmarking Tool
17
Apr 2026
Online
13:00 – 14:00 CEST
The European Higher Education Sector Observatory (EHESO) recently launched its new Institutional Benchmarking Tool, which represents a significant advancement in European higher education data analytics, providing access to comprehensive data from approximately 3,500 European institutions.
This webinar offers hands-on guidance through all key features and functionalities. Participants will gain practical experience navigating the platform, understanding the underlying methodology, and interpreting the rich array of indicators available.
Whether you are new to benchmarking or an experienced data analyst, this training will equip you with the knowledge and skills needed to extract meaningful insights for your institution.
The benchmarking tool compares higher education institutions based on similarities in profiles and missions. This approach allows applied sciences universities to compare to relevant peer institutions and benchmark their performance against categories and indicators relevant to their profile.
The tool uses a dedicated peer selection algorithm that identifies the 15 most similar institutions and does this by calculating distance across a small set of structural indicators. It offers indicators across seven categories which are particularly relevant to the profiles of UAS.
The session is delivered by Gero Federkeil, EHESO Director of Survey Data, CHE Centre fort Higher Education, and Frans Kaiser, Researcher at the University of Twente.
Agenda
| 13:00 |
Introduction to the European Higher Education Sector Observatory The session will begin with an overview of the platform’s architecture and the data sources that power it. Participants will learn about the EHESO-ETER data collection, which forms the foundation of the tool, alongside external sources covering publications and patents. The training will explain the scope of the dataset, including the approximately 3,500 participating institutions, and clarify which institutions are included based on data completeness criteria. Attendees will also discover how the tool presents the most recent data from 2022, with time series information available in the expert view for longitudinal analysis and trend identification. |
| 13:10 |
Introduction to the EHESO Benchmarking Tool A key component of the webinar will focus on the platform’s two distinct interfaces. The ‘at a glance’ view provides quick, accessible overviews ideal for rapid assessments and executive summaries. Participants will learn how to use this view to obtain snapshot comparisons and identify areas of strength or development opportunities at a glance. The ‘expert’ view offers deeper analytical capabilities, enabling detailed exploration of indicators, time series analysis, as well as customised comparisons. The training will demonstrate how to navigate this more advanced interface, filter data, and create tailored analyses to support strategic decision-making. |
| 13:35 |
Participation in EHESO institutional data collection For the benchmarking tool, EHESO uses a variety of data sources: Among them are data from national statistical offices, EU data, bibliometric and patent data – and, particularly for indicators on emerging topics data from EHESO’s original institutional data collection. Since about one third of all indicators are based on data from this institutional survey, participation will aloe to have the full profiles of indicators visible in the tool. |
| 13:45 | Q&A |