Interfax and the Ekho Moskvy name Russia‘s best universities in 2011-2012 academic year

Interfax and the Ekho Moskvy radio station have presented the third annual national rating of Russian universities for 2011-2012 academic year.

The main purpose of this project, which began in December 2009, is to develop mechanisms and procedures for an independent evaluation of Russian universities and their programs, stimulate competition for the growth of "intellectual capitalization" of Russian universities, and make them more competitive on the world educational and research scale.           

In 2011-2012 academic year, like the year before, the national ratings of universities was topped by Lomonosov Moscow State University, which was given 100 points. It is followed by the Moscow National Institute of Physics and Technology (State University) (74 points), the Bauman Moscow State Technical University (71 points), the People‘s Friendship University of Russia (70 points), and Southern Federal University and the Novosibirsk National Research State University (Novosibirsk State University) (66 points each).

The national rating for 2011-2012 academic year includes 105 universities, including 76 traditional universities and 29 national research universities (national research universities are educational establishments combining educational and research activities).

The authors of the national university rating traditionally compose an annual rating of "industry" universities. This year, they created a rating of universities that are in the area of responsibility of the country‘s transport agencies. The rating comprises 20 universities and is topped by the Moscow State University of Railway Engineering (MIIT).

Universities were evaluated using six key parameters: educational activities; research activities; socialization (reflects universities‘ activities in the social sphere);  internationalization or international activities of universities; university brand; commercialization (universities‘ achievements in the sphere of innovations and commercialization of their developments). The weight of the first two parameters was evaluated by the authors of the rating at 0.2 points for each university and the weight of the other parameters was 0.15.

The evaluation was conducted on the basis of information contained in questionnaires filled out by representatives of the universities, public information posted by universities on their official sites, and several information systems including those of Rospatent, Roststat, and the text information resource SCAN.

"The national university rating is becoming increasingly popular every year with potential applicants, the academic community, and Russian employers," Alexei Chaplygin, the head of the project, said. The audiences are the most interested in the evaluations of the country‘s leading universities (federal universities and national research universities), he said.

"Universities are now paying closer attention to our project. This is indicated by the strengthening cooperation between the research group and the country‘s leading universities, which, in turn, have begun to actively provide information on their activities," Chaplygin said.

Top 21. Russia‘s best universities in 2011-2012 academic year

*** Interfax Group and the Ekho Moskvy radio station began working on a new joint project, the formation of Russian university ratings, in December 2009. The first rating, presented in June 2010, analyzed universities using two criteria: traditional universities and law schools and departments. Each category contained 50 universities.

In 2011, the range of universities surveyed was expanded to 104 universities, including 29 national research universities. In addition, because 2011 was Teacher‘s Year in Russia, a rating of pedagogical and linguistics universities and universities for the humanities was made after 2010-2011 academic year (the rating included 71 pedagogical universities).

A complete national rating of universities for 2011-2012 academic year is posted on the official website of the project www.univer-rating.ru and is published in the June 6 edition of the newspaper Vedomosti.