University web pages praised

The University of Oslo’s strongly criticized web pages land a 7th place in a new ranking. And soon they will be even better.

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Webometrics

  • Carried out by the Spanish company Cybermetrics Lab.
  • The survey includes 15 000 educational institutions, of which 4 200 is in Europe.
  • Four different factors were considered. Digital visibility counts fifty per cent, the size of the pages counts twenty per cent, file extensiveness and the number of scientific documents each count fifteen per cent.
  • The survey is carried out twice a year.
  • Norwegian School of Management BI is found on 1279th place in the global ranking, Norwegian School of Veterinary Science is found on 4034th place and Norwegian School of Sports Sciences is found on 4541st place.

    • Vegard Tjørhom • Translated by Ingrid F. Brubaker

According to the global survey Webometrics, the University of Oslo’s web pages are the seventh most informative and visible in Europe. 15 000 institutions of higher education have been judged, of which well over 4 200 were European ones. The University of Oslo holds 55th place on the global ranking, in which American universities holds the twenty-four top positions.

NTNU passes UiO

The University of Oslo’s web pages scores high in the survey because of the pages’ size and visibility when it comes to the use of search engines. Assisting director of communication Marina Tofting says that UiO doesn’t necessarily make a point out of high scores in such surveys, but that result follows hard work.

– If we for example publish our files in a complete text format, design the domain structure differently or make good use of links on websites, this will be reflected in surveys like Webometrics. We do, however, adjust our web pages mainly for the users, says Tofting.

However, the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) does even better in the survey and is found in the position above the University of Oslo. With that, NTNU climbs from a 92nd place in the last global survey.

– It’s positive that NTNU is ranked as high as it is, even though we are skeptical of that survey because it measures quantity before quality, says Jan Erik Kaarø, vice-chairman in the information department at NTNU.

NTNU is ranked high for having a large archive consisting a large number of files. The University of Oslo has fewer files, but is rewarded for having large and comprehensive files.

New UiO website ready soon

Even though the survey shows that the university’s web pages contain much information, the University of Oslo have been strongly criticized for lack of usability and bad layout. The UiO management has said that the web pages are to be improved ever since 2005, and last year director of communication Siv Nordrum admitted that the web pages were characterized by «anarchy».

According to project leader for «New UiO web» Elizabeth Melsom the work is evolving steadily. The first faculty will receive their new web pages in November already.

– The Faculty of Law is the first one to get new web pages on November 16th. From there we’ll move on to the highest level and work on the first page you meet if you go into Uio.no. After that, we’ll fix all the pages, faculty by faculty.

A lot to tidy

The change of the University of Oslo web pages is an extensive job, calculated to cost around 25 million kroner.

– It is a huge project. There is a lot of information on the domain, and a lot of things to tidy. The work on the content is an important task, says Melsom.

The web pages are to get a new graphic profile, which just got approved, and everyone is to get a common publishing solution. Most of the work should be finished within the end of 2010.

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