Interfax releases 8th national rating of universities

International Information Services Group Interfax has released the eighth annual national university rankings for the 2016/2017 academic year.

Lomonosov Moscow State University maintained its invariable position at the top of the ranking. The National Research Nuclear University MEPhI came in second and St. Petersburg State University - third. Fourth place went to Higher School of Economics National Research University and fifth - to Novosibirsk National Research State University.

The top ten also included the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (No. 6), St. Petersburg National Research University of IT, Mechanics and Optics (No. 7), Tomsk State University (No. 8), the Russian University of Peoples‘ Friendship (No. 9) and Tomsk State Polytechnic University (No. 10).

The rankings included 264 universities, which is 26 more than last year. The ranking includes 21 participants in the 5-100 project, 29 national research universities, 10 federal universities and 33 backbone universities.

The full top 20 of the Interfax national rating of universities for 2017 and six separate ratings for key directions of operations were published on Tuesday morning on the official website of the National Rating of Universities at http://unirating.ru.

Growth leaders

Editor of the National Rating of Universities Alexei Chaplygin said that Moscow State University has been the invariable leader since the first ranking in 2010 while MEPhI is second for the second year thanks to its high standard of international cooperation and cooperation with high tech business.

"According to most criteria MEPhI is comparable with world class universities despite its history of closure which is successfully being overcome largely thanks to its involvement in the 5-100 project," Chaplygin said.

He also pointed to the growth in the rankings of St. Petersburg State University, which climbed from fifth place to third. He attributed the success to high indicators in research and innovations.

"It must be said that it is precisely certain graduates of St. Petersburg State University who are leaders of world class high tech startups, though developed in Silicon Valley," Chaplygin said.

Accelerated development is also demonstrated by a leader of Russian education, the Higher School of Economics, which rose from the sixth place to fourth thanks to notable achievements in innovations and technological entrepreneurship.

One more breakthrough was made by the St. Petersburg National Research University of IT, Mechanics and Optics which rose from 12th place to seventh thanks to innovations and successful cooperation with business, Chaplygin said.

The editor also mentioned several universities from the top 50 group which have surged radically in the ratings.

Thus, Shukhov Belgorod State Technological University, which received the status of a backbone university a month ago, rose by 57 positions (No. 30). The Southwestern State University jumped by 53 points (No. 43), Stankin Moscow State Technological University - by 32 points (No. 35), Bashkir State University and Stavropol State Agrarian University - by 25 points (No. 50 and No. 47 respectively).

Methodology

Six parameters of the operations of universities were measured according to a 1000-point scale and the integral ranking was calculated in six key directions: education (20%), research (20%), social environment (15%), international and interregional cooperation (15%), innovations (15%) and university brand (15%). Six separate rankings were made for each of the directions.

The sources used for the rankings included public materials about the operations of the universities, questionnaires collected by Interfax experts, the results of monitoring conducted by the Ministry of Education and Science and also the results of an analysis conducted with the help of the SCAN-Interfax system of comprehensive news analysis.

The National Ranking of Universities, an Interfax Information Services Group special project, was launched in 2010 to develop and test new mechanisms for independent evaluation of Russian institutions of higher learning.