How to evaluate the quality of higher education institutions in Russia

The ranking of the best universities in the world is a global study conducted by the method of publishing The Times Higher Education. This rating is considered the most objective and reliable. Russian universities took their place in it.

When compiling a rating, several criteria for the success of an educational institution are taken into account. This is the citation of publications created by employees of the university, the attitude of employers to graduates of this institution, the reputation among academic colleagues and the percentage of local and foreign teachers and students. During the study, more than 2.5 thousand universities were audited, and 46 thousand experts and 25 thousand employers expressed their opinion. This helped create a fairly objective picture of the popularity of higher education institutions.

In 2012, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology became the leader of the rating for the first time, having replaced last year's winner - University of Cambridge in second place. The top three universities closed another famous European university - Harvard. Following them are University College London and Oxford.

Leading Russian universities - Moscow State University and St. Petersburg State University have lost several positions. Lomonosov Moscow State University was in 116th place instead of 112, and St. Petersburg State University dropped to 253th place instead of 251th.

Lost in the ranking of Tomsk State and Kazan Federal Universities, as well as Nizhny Novgorod State University named after Lobachevsky. Experts attribute such a decline in popularity with a decrease in citation of the work of researchers.

Nevertheless, in general, Russian education in 2012 looks better than in the previous one. In the ranking of universities, Novosibirsk State University rose by 29 positions, and by Bauman Moscow State Technical University by 27. PFUR and the Higher School of Economics have improved their position. The Far Eastern Federal University and the Plekhanov Russian Academy of Economics also appeared for the first time in the ranking.