‘Open border’ universities perform better in knowledge transfer, research impact and education

‘Open border’ universities perform better than universities with low international exchange in the areas of knowledge transfer, research impact and education. They are more successful in engaging and transferring knowledge to industry (39% higher share of publications together with industrial partners), in establishing spinoff companies (80% higher) and in patenting their ideas (2.5 times more), and their research shows higher outreach (36% higher number of top cited publications). Additionally, students of open border universities are more satisfied with their overall learning experience.

These results, exclusive to U-Multirank were recently published and are based on analysis of 1,711 universities. Open border universities are charactarised by strong international ties, such as higher rates of foreign students, more international academic staff, higher rates of international doctorate degrees, and more international co-publications.