Interfax creates news website devoted to education and science

Interfax News Agency announces the creation of a new news website, academia.interfax.ru, devoted to the development of education and science in Russia.

The main goal of academia.interfax.ru is to cover topical and key events in the field of higher education and science, including their reforms, the discussion of legislative initiatives, development of cooperation between research and education institutes and businesses, and informing the widest audiences about achievements in research and development, and the development of markets for highly skilled labor.

The website published expert commentaries; interviews with university heads, well-known academics, representatives of innovatory business; and information about specialized and publicly important events in the field of education, science, technology and social entrepreneurship. The website pays particular attention to topical reference information about scientific and educational organizations in Russia and on the educational research, social and entrepreneurial programs they are pursuing.

A separate section of academia.interfax.ru is devoted to rankings, which in particular give readers access to the National Universities Ranking (NUR), a well-known Interfax Group research project.

"In the years since we launched the NUR project, we have succeeded not just in working in a systemic basis with the country‘s leading universities but also in learning on a highly professional expert level to grasp the sector‘s problems and look at them from the inside. This was the decisive factor when the agency decided to create the new academia.interfax.ru news website," said Alexei Gorshkov, First Deputy CEO, Interfax. "Of course heightened interest from the public, businesses and the country‘s leadership in the development of education and science was also taken into consideration," Gorshkov said.

"The country‘s future depends on the quality of its education and level of the development of its science. These crucial areas ultimately determine the vector of our state‘s development going forward," he said.

Interfax, set up in 1989, was the country‘s first independent outlet for political and business information. For almost 30 years, Interfax has been the most frequently cited source of up-to-the-minute information about Russia and other former Soviet republics in the world media. The agency‘s subscribers include leading Russian and foreign media, government agencies, major banks, corporations, companies and funds.

In the late 1990s, Interfax News Agency became part of the Interfax Information Group, bringing together several dozen companies, including a network of agencies in former Soviet republics, Russian federal districts and abroad. The Interfax Group develops state-of-the-art B2B solutions for risk management, marketing, external communications and compliance.

The Interfax Group launched the National Universities Ranking (academia.interfax.ru; unirating.ru) research project in 2010. Its aims are to develop new systems for the independent evaluation of Russian institutions of higher education and their educational programs; to make the Russian system of education, scientific research and technology entrepreneurship more competitive; and developing the federal and regional universities that are helping to make the fabric of Russia‘s new economy.