Two universities of Kazan enter Russia’s most influential universities ranking

Formation of elites and authority

The rating of the influence of Russian universities is published for the third time — research is published every two years. The first issue was prepared in 2020, Alexey Khodyrev, the executive director of the University Ratings department of the RAEX rating agency, said on 13 November. The influence of universities is determined in four main areas: contribution to the formation of elites, role in the scientific community, authority among young people and influence on the Internet audience. The most significant of them is the first, and each of the directions contains different selection criteria.

• Formation of elites: the number of graduates holding senior positions in the largest companies in Russia, as well as positions in federal executive authorities; the number of graduates to whom a separate page in Wikipedia is dedicated.

• Impact on the scientific community: the share of the university in the volume of publications in the country; the number of citations of articles (according to foreign data and according to the RINC (Russian Index of Scientific Citation); the average normalised citation.

• Authority among young people: average exam scores of those enrolled in the budget and commerce; the number of those enrolled based on participation in Olympiads without taking into account entrance tests; the average cost of tuition in the first year.

• Impact on the Internet audience: the size of the website's Internet audience; the number of subscribers on social networks; the number of views of the university's Wikipedia page.

Kazan stood out twice

Kazan universities also made it into the influence ranking — Kazan Federal University took 13th place, and Kazan State Medical University ranked 65th. The Kazan Federal University got into the top 20 for the second time in a row, however, in 2022 the university received 40.34 points, and now its result has decreased to 39.59 points. In 2020, the higher education institution was in the 15th position.

According to the certificate, the institution managed to be noted in 42 ratings in different positions. Among others, the 20th place in the list of the best universities in the country for this year.

As for the KSMU, the 65th place was secured by 13.54 points. Two years ago, the score was higher — 57th position and 16.22 points. However, the university still has not fallen below the figures of 2020, when it took 66th place.

In total, the university was ranked in eight different rankings. The university was also noted among the best — in 44th place.

Most participants are from Moscow and St. Petersburg

Almost 60% of the participants in the rating are metropolitan universities in Moscow and St. Petersburg, Khodyrev said. They also filled the entire top 10, with one exception — the Ural University named after Yeltsin took 8th place. The list includes universities in only 22 regions of Russia.

The leaders of the ranking have maintained their positions: the podium is once again occupied by Lomonosov Moscow State University, RANEPA, and St. Petersburg State University The universities of the top twenty have confirmed their high assessment — there are no new participants in the top 20," the speaker said.

Nevertheless, ten newcomers appeared in the ranking: Ufa University of Science and Technology, Almazov Medical Research Centre, Crimean University named after Vernadsky, Volga Region Research Medical University, North Caucasus University, Don State Technical University, Voino-Yasenetsky Krasnoyarsk State University.

The presentation also notes that technical universities are losing their influence — in 2022 their share in the rating was 29%, and now it is 25%. The researchers named the main reason for the increase in the prestige of social and humanitarian professions.

At the same time, the number of influential classical universities has increased — 21% against 24%. Medical universities have also raised their positions from 8% to 10%. Meanwhile, the humanitarian ones remained unchanged.

At the same time, according to the presentation, most socio-humanitarian universities have improved their position in the ranking. The main driver of this was their active participation in the formation of elites.