Shadi Hijazi: "Employability Is Relevant for Every Student"

16:06, May 24, 2019

According to the QS Ranking Agency expert, UrFU has been a role model for all universities in Russia

On May 24, Senior Analyst at the International Ranking Agency QS Shadi Hidjazi came to Ekaterinburg to hold a meeting with UrFU staff. The expert presented the university’s positions in QS rankings and its development dynamics, as well as gave prognosis for the future.

During his visit to Ekaterinburg, Shadi Hidjazi visited various historical sites and was very impressed with the local architecture and museums. The expert who has been working at the QS Ranking Agency for 10 years noted that UrFU was the first university to state its international collaboration plans clearly.

‘It was the time when UrFU was the leader in the Russian context,’ the expert recalled. ‘And now all the Russian universities are trying to copy the same model. But the presentation today shows that all the efforts are paying off — international community will look at UrFU and realize: it’s a decent institution in the center of Russia.’

According to the expert, UrFU has been a role model for all universities in Russia, which means that now the university’s goal is to grow even more and be ahead of other educational institutions.

‘Now suddenly many other universities are trying to catch up [with UrFU], and some of them copy what UrFU did early on. This is very good for the country, but that means that UrFU need to be even “faster” than other universities. Before you “ran” and everybody else “walked”; now everybody’s “running”, and you should “run” faster and faster. It’s a good competition for students, for academics and for the country.’

When asked about science at UrFU, the Mr. Hidjazi claimed that UrFU researchers are very keen to take steps to improve the quality of their scientific work. The expert highlights that our scientists focus on both doing research in Russia and working on the international level, and this dynamic has been very strong in the last few years. According to Mr. Hidjazi, Russian universities are showing more interest in sharing their scientific work with the world. He also adds that UrFU has great potential at interdisciplinary research, considering its high positions in both humanities and technical subjects rankings.

The expert acknowledged that UrFU is growing in all QS rankings steadily, year by year.

‘Today’s presentation shows that little by little UrFU is appearing in the global ranking. Subject ranking is improving year by year. Recall that we have 4 subject areas, and hopefully our global ranking will be announced in two weeks. We’ll see if this impressive improvement is continuing. We’ll have good news for UrFU very soon,’ Mr. Hidjazi shared.

Over the last two years, the QS Rankings have been paying special attention to such criterion as university graduate’s employability. According to Shadi Hidjazi, their rankings are mostly aimed at students, who first and foremost seek universities which can provide education valued by employers all over the world.

‘For the university ranking we look for four main areas: research, internationalization, reputation, employability. Over the last few years employability became more important for students, because our ranking is not for academics. We want QS to be helping students to find best universities. [Employability] is very relevant for every student,’ the expert added.

Shadi Hidjazi also claims that research in UrFU has been showing great dynamics across all rankings, even though this criterion takes a lot of time to have any effect. Publishing and sharing scientific work takes a lot of time. However, UrFU manages to grow in research, international cooperation and reputation.

‘In my presentation it was very clear that academics around the world realize that UrFU is a good university across a lot of subjects,’ the expert shared. ‘And it’s a good thing for the university in the heart of Russia.’