Notes
1. The Lisbon Strategy, also known as the Lisbon Agenda or Lisbon Process, is an action and development plan for the European Union. Its aim is to make the EU “the most dynamic and competitive knowledge‐based economy in the world capable of sustainable economic growth with more and better jobs and greater social cohesion, and respect for the environment by 2010”. It was laid out by the European Council in Lisbon in March 2000, against the background of productivity in the EU being below that of the United States. It is significant that when assessing the contribution of higher education in EU countries towards achieving the objectives of the Lisbon Agenda, reference is made to two international rankings – The Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) and The World University Ranking (WUR) from The Times Higher Education Supplement (Commission of the European Communities, Citation2007).
2. Information about IREG‐International Observatory is available on its website ⟨www.ireg‐observatory.org⟩.