The EVALUATE framework and handbook

Full handbook

The heart of this handbook is an Evaluation Framework that is grounded in existing evaluation theory and devised following extensive investigations into the practices of evaluation in the institutional and national / international contexts. This full version of the handbook also includes an extensive Literature Review and an Anthology of case studies that users can apply in developing their own expertise in evaluating university partnerships.

Compact handbook

The compact handbook contains the core elements of the Evaluation Framework and concise excerpts.

Who is the handbook for?

The handbook is for partnerships development professionals in higher education.

How can you use this handbook?

You can use this handbook to improve the quality of international strategic partnerships between universities by providing a framework for the evaluation of success, failure and everything in between. This framework has been developed in such a way that it can be applied to any higher education institutional context in for the purposes of successful evaluation of partnership.

Why is this handbook important?

Partnerships between universities can provide a wide range of benefits. Yet, our understanding of how these partnerships perform can be quite limited. Evaluation gives us the evidence to understand the value of partnerships – and to use that evidence to inform monitoring and decision-making.

What do the project partners have to say about this handbook?

UCPH is continuously working to fulfil the potential of our international strategic partnerships to ensure the highest possible quality in our research and education. The EVALUATE project is a welcome and very valuable resource in this endeavour.

Kristian Cedervall Lauta, Prorector for Education

Strategic international partnerships offer higher education institutions great opportunities, but also pose challenges. UCD is committed to building sustainable partnerships of mutual beneft, and EVALUATE offers an exciting new means to support this. I am delighted to welcome this unique resource to UCD.

Professor Dolores O’Riordan, Vice-President for Global Engagement

The world’s grand challenges cannot be solved in isolation – we need to work together. The EVALUATE handbook will help you build these impactful collaborations.

Professor James Smith, Vice Principal International

The handbook is an essential read for all who want to improve their strategic partnerships with the help of evaluation.

Professor Hanna Snellman, Vice Rector International

High quality strategic international partnerships are a pre-requisite for success across both our education and research missions. The EVALUATE handbook is a valuable resource to assist in developing such sustainable partnerships.

Annetje Ottow, President of the Executive Board

Our partnerships with other universities create global opportunities for students and staff. Collaboration sparks innovation, and improves our research, teaching and learning. This evaluation handbook makes a valuable contribution to the theory and practice of managing sustainable international university partnerships.

Professor Mark Scott AO, Vice-Chancellor and President

Who developed this handbook?

This handbook has been produced by the EVALUATE project – Developing a Framework for Evaluation of International University partnerships.

• The EVALUATE project consortium
• The University of Copenhagen, Denmark
• University College Dublin, Republic of Ireland
• The University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom
• The University of Helsinki, Finland
• Leiden University, Netherlands
• The University of Sydney, Australia

EVALUATE was funded under ERASMUS+ Key Action 2 from 2019 - 2022. The University of Edinburgh was the project coordinator.

Further information

The project is closed as of November 2022. If you would like to connect to the project team please email Global.Partnerships@ed.ac.uk.