NSU Leads BRICS Rating of Russian Regional Universities

The Association of Rating Compilers (ARC) has published a pilot ranking of universities in the BRICS countries. The list includes 600 educational institutions from ten Commonwealth countries: Brazil, Egypt, India, Iran, China, the United Arab Emirates, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Ethiopia and South Africa. Russia is second in terms of number of universities rated with 161. Novosibirsk State University is in 19th place in the overall ranking, the highest position among Russian regional universities.

The BRICS rating methodology applies the “Three University Missions” approach, but takes into account the national characteristics of the countries included in the Association. University activities are evaluated according to three parameters: education, science, and relations with society. The difference is that the weight of some indicators has been changed and one new indicator has been added, “the number of joint scientific publications with BRICS partners”.

Mikhail Fedoruk, NSU Rector and Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, commented,

NSU's high position in the BRICS university ratings is explained by several factors. First of all, the quality of education and scientific activity. Also, the high rating was impacted by an increase in the significance of the indicator "the number of victories of university students in international student Olympiads" (data on Olympiads were taken into account from 2019 to 2023). Another positive factor was the Rating’s addition of the number of scientific works in partnership with colleagues from BRICS countries. NSU is traditionally strong in international scientific ties, especially with the countries that are part of this Association. We currently have 126 partner universities in 24 countries and more than 300 publications with foreign co-authors are published annually.

24 Russian universities entered the top hundred in the Rating. The highest positions were taken by Moscow State University (2nd place), Saint Petersburg State University (5th place), Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (6th place), HSE (10th place) and MEPhI (15th place). Next come universities located in the regions, among them the leader is Novosibirsk State University (19th place), followed by Tomsk State University (36th place), and Ural Federal University (38th place).

The strongest aspect of Russian universities is the quality of education. 39 educational institutions in Russia entered the top 100 universities according to these criteria, 10 of them are in the top twenty.