The Polytechnic University is climbing to the top: a new ranking of best BRICS universities has been published

3 December 2015 Achievements 2285
The Polytechnic University is climbing to the top: a new ranking of best BRICS universities has been published

On Wednesday night Moscow time the BRICS & Emerging Economies Rankings for universities were published by the reputable British journal Times Higher Education (THE) for the third time. This year the ranking includes 200 universities from 35 countries. Saint-Petersburg Polytechnic University holds one of the leading positions in this list of the best universities in the world: it is No. 18 in the full list and No. 2 among Russian universities, second only to Lomonosov Moscow State University (No. 3 in the full list and No. 1 in Russia).

This time there are 15 Russian higher education institutions in the BRICS & Emerging Economies Rankings. 11 Russian universities found themselves in top-100, whereas last year there were only 7. It is worth mentioning that 10 Russian universities from this list are taking part in a special Project aimed at boosting competitiveness of the leading Russian universities among the leading research and education centers in the world: Peter the Great Saint-Petersburg Polytechnic University (position 18), Tomsk Polytechnic University (20), National Research Nuclear University “MEPhI” (26), Kazan Federal University (31), Novosibirsk State University (34), Tomsk State University (87), Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (93), The National University of Science and Technology MISiS (99), Ural Federal University (165) and Lobachevsky State University of Nizhni Novgorod (193).

“Two years ago the rankings included only Lomonosov Moscow State University and Saint-Petersburg State University, whereas now we see a whole range of the leading Russian universities”, commented A.B. Povalko, Deputy Minister of Education and Science of the Russian Federation. “Most of them have been included in the rankings for the first time, and we hope that they will go further by strengthening their positions in the future. The Polytechnic University and Tomsk Polytechnic University did especially well this time. It is obvious that the rivalry encouraged by the Project aimed at boosting competitiveness of the universities serves as an impetus to move forward faster”.

A.I. Rudskoy, Rector of SPbPU also believes that the positive results are determined by the governmental aid within the framework of the Program “5-100-2020”: “Success in ranking competition depends on our continuous, long-term work at the University, which definitely would not have been possible without the governmental aid, I mean the Project for Boosting Competitiveness”. According to Andrey Ivanovich, “the most convenient conditions” were created for Russian and international lecturers owing to this Project.

The ranking list was compiled using the time-tested trustworthy methodology of the Times Higher Education which serves as a basis for other “lists of the best” including World University Rankings. It is based on indicators taking into account all main aspects of university activities: teaching, research, academic publications and exchange, internationalization. However, certain parameters can be slightly altered for universities from emerging countries. For instance, considering rather low integration of academics from such countries into the English-speaking academic community, they are hardly expected to have numerous publications in the leading journals indexed in the Web of Science data base. Therefore, the value of this indicator for universities from countries with emerging economies is lower. Moreover, the value of other indicators, such as “innovative activity”, “industrial income”, “international outlook” is higher.

Finally, it should be mentioned that Peking University comes first in the rankings and Tsighua University is the second. Apart from Chinese universities and Lomonosov Moscow State University, universities from South Africa, Taiwan and Brazil are included in top-10.

Media Center of SPbPU

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