Russia has established new international rating "Three Missions of Universities", which will rank both Russian and foreign universities. The ranking is based on on 35 indicators, covering not only scientific achievements and quality of education, but also the influence of the university on culture and its value to society. It was presented by Viktor Sadovnichy, rector of the Moscow State University, which has been repeatedly included in the international rankings, including the top 100 of the most prestigious universities in the world.
Authors of the project - the Russian Union of Rectors and the Russian Academy of Science. They analyzed existing rankings and came to the conclusion that each of them has a specific purpose and a specific method, emphasizing the strengths and weaknesses in any part of the university's life. "We wanted to look at the universities more broadly, from many different points of view, which allows us to review all aspects of university's life. University's influence on the development of society is usually not reflected in such rankings. We wanted to avoid this drawback, to see new aspects and to do everything objectively. University is a culture, education, life of the region or the country in which it is located. We don't consider expert opinion, which is the most important in many rankings. We want everything to be evaluated based on objective data, indicators, and wanted to have as much of these indicators as possible," Sadovnichy said.
According to him, by March or April it will be possible to sum up the results of the national Russian sector. Regional (for the BRICS countries, for example) and international ratings will be created based on the national study. Complete results will be published a year later. The readiness to participate in a new ranking was already expressed by rectors from Japan, India, China and Iran.
Shanghai ranking, Britain's Times Higher Education (THE) ranking and QS ranking are considered to be the most prestigious international rankings of universities, but their results are criticized for biased assessment of Russian realities, among other things.
