At the end of the fourth European Commission supported U-Map project this update report presents the progress that has been made in implementing U-Map. Initial reactions to U-Map have been very promising; representatives of participating institutions and policy-makers have found that the institutional profiles it produces are useful in increasing transparency and in informing institutional and national policy-making. On a European scale, U-Map offers the promise of a better understanding of diversity as an important factor in the further development of the European higher education and research systems and the realisation of the goals of the Lisbon strategy, the Bologna process and the new European Commission Modernisation Agenda for Higher Education (September 2011).