On October 12, 2009 in Brussels (Belgium) the IREG Observatory on Academic Ranking and Excellence was officially registered as a legal body of the international non-commercial association.

The founders of the IREG-Observatory are the following organizations:

– University of Maribor (Slovenia);

– Polish Educational Fund "Perspectives" (Poland);

– Center for Higher Education Development (CHE, Germany);

– Consulting Company «Shanghai Ranking» (China);

– Independent Slovak Academic Ranking and Rating Agency (ARRA, Slovakia);

– Independent Kazakh Agency for Quality Assurance in Education (IQAA, Kazakhstan);

– Babeș-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca (Romania);

– Research and scientific institute of applied information technologies at the National Technical University of Ukraine (Ukraine);

– Journal «U.S. News & World Report» (USA).