Subject Ranking QS: Polytech is ranked again among the TOP universities
Recently QS World University Rankings by Subject 2018 has been published. A study conducted by analysts of Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) evaluated 1,100 higher education institutions in 48 subjects and 5 research directions. Polytech improved its positions in two fields - Engineering and Technology and Natural Science.
QS World University Rankings by Subject is published for the eighth time. Based on QS methodology, universities are evaluated according to four criteria: the opinions of the academic community and employers, citation rates and Hirsch index. In 2017, SPbPU was ranked for the first time and started from the position 401-450 in the field “Natural Science”. This year our university is ranked 349. But the most noticeable result SPbPU achieved in the field “Engineering and Technology”, rising from 292nd to 248th position. This is the 5th result among all higher education institutions of Russia and the third among universities participating in the Project 5-100.
It should be mentioned that in the field “Engineering and Technology” universities are evaluated by analyzing the data for all the following subjects: Informatics and Information Technology, Chemical Engineering, Civil Engineering and Structural Engineering, Electrotechnical and Electronic Engineering and Mechanical Engineering. In the field "Natural Science" - for all the following subjects: Chemistry, Shipbuilding and Earth Sciences, Materials Science, Mathematics, Physics and Astronomy). Therefore, the drop in indicators for one subject can be compensated due to another (it is necessary, however, to meet the standard for the number of publications).
As we have already noted, the QS subject ranking takes into account such indicators as: the Hirsch index of the university in the subject (area); citing; reputation according to employers and reputation in the academic community. But in each subject (area) the significance of the indicators is not the same. For example, reputation is more significant for the direction “Engineering and Technology” than for “Natural Science”. And indicators themselves do not provide information about the dynamics in the ranking - it is important to compare with other universities.
As for the “Natural Science”, the improvement is due to the Hirsch index in the subjects “Physics and Astronomy” by 6.4 and “Shipbuilding and Earth Sciences” by 12,1, as well as the growth of the academic reputation for the subject “Shipbuilding and Earth Sciences”. As a result, there was a growth of the total score by 3.7 units and it contributed to the higher position of the university in 2018.
Specifically, subject rankings, in recent years have been given special attention. Their advantage is that they evaluate the activity of universities in specific subject areas. For many universities, it is logical - to develop existing competencies in their strongest areas and thus becoming well-known all over the world. SPbPU Rector, Academician of the RAS Andrey I. RUDSKOY, commenting on the results of the ranking, noted that Polytech every year increases its results on the international education market. “We are implementing an internationalization strategy. It includes an increase in the number of publications in peer-reviewed journals indexed in international databases Scopus and Web of Science. This year, we have further strengthened the multidisciplinary approach, so there is a positive trend in both “Engineering and Technology” and “Natural Science”. Our strategic goal is to become one of the prominent research and educational centers on these specializations in the world arena. And we are looking forward to further promotion in the subject rankings in the future”.