New Times Higher Education Rankings: UrFU Climbs Up the Ladder Again

10:19, October 29, 2020

See how we rose in the past months

Ural Federal University has made significant progress in a number of areas in the new Times Higher Education subject ranking - one of the most authoritative world rankings of universities.

• Learn more about our rankings now.

 

The best dynamics of UrFU was demonstrated in the areas of Business and Economics (+6.1 points, 301–400 place, entering the next top), Physical Sciences (improvement by 3.2 points, 401–500 place, entering the next top) and Engineering ( improvement by 1.2 points, 801–1000 place, entering the next top). In addition, for the first time, UrFU entered the ranking in the areas of Life Sciences (601-800) and Clinical and Health (601+).

“This year, the economists of UrFU have made a big step forward in their advancement in the ranking,” notes Rector Victor Koksharov. - We moved to a higher “league”, and this is not the result of momentary exertion of forces, but of long, hard work. After all, the position in the ranking is provided by a set of results. Achievements in teaching, internationalization, the number of publications, their citation are taken into account. "

The Graduate School of Economics and Management of UrFU adds that over the past year, the number of universities - international partners has increased by 20%. In particular, agreements have been concluded with universities in India, in the process of preparing agreements with universities in Indonesia and Malaysia. Universities with the most prestigious accreditations are becoming partners of UrFU. In the long term, the system for identifying and supporting young researchers created at the institute will ensure the movement forward.

“This year, the list of grounds for obtaining grants that young scientists of the institute can count on, as well as foreign specialists with PhD degrees and young foreign scientists who plan to continue their academic careers, has been expanded,” says Deputy Director for Science and Innovation of the School of Economics and Management of GSEM UrFU Irina Turgel. - Our publication activity also played an important role. Over three years, the number of publications indexed in the international databases Scopus and Web of Science has grown by 76%, amounting to 438 publications in 2019. At the same time, the number of publications in the most authoritative journals on economics and management is also growing."

The growth of the university in the direction of natural sciences is also largely due to the increase in the number of publications by university scientists. According to the Vice-Rector of UrFU for Science Alexander Germanenko, in 2019 the number of high-quality publications (first and second quartiles), compared to 2018, increased by one and a half times. Most of them are related to physics.

“This is the area of ​​science where we are actively developing international cooperation - with Germany, China, India, the United States,” Germanenko emphasizes. - In recent years, we have also developed the UrFU Postdoc program, and the scientists included in this program have shown their highest efficiency - the share of publications in the first and second quartiles is twice as large as the university average. The number of foreign graduate students is also growing ”.

As for medicine, here the growth of UrFU in the ranking became possible thanks to the university's research in the development of new drugs (antiviral, against diabetes, development in the field of immunology), the construction of a mathematical model of the heart and the use of magnetic fluids for the transport of drugs inside the body. Recently, work in these areas has been intensifying, and quality has improved.

Vice-Rector for Science Alexander Germanenko also notes that such an indicator as the amount of funds raised is of great importance in the rating.

“In addition to income from work with enterprises, this also includes funds received by our scientists through grants from the Russian Science Foundation and the Russian Foundation for Basic Research,” says the vice-rector. “Here we also see an increase in our indicators, including in physics.”

According to Oleg Sheshukov, Director of the Institute of New Materials and Technologies of UrFU, the growth of the university in the direction of Engineering is associated with close work with enterprises - this significantly increases the quality of training.

“Our graduates are in demand today by the economy, enterprises are very interested in specialists in the field of metallurgy and mechanical engineering, but with knowledge of management, economics and information technology,” says Sheshukov. - We do our best to provide our students with such an interdisciplinary education. Now there is a great demand for IT designers. To improve the quality of training, the university has already purchased and continues to purchase the necessary equipment for laser cutting, welding, coating, equipment in the field of additive technologies, we are also making a class for teaching robotics. "

The university is open to work with employers to improve the quality of the education offered and is interested in creating new joint educational programs. For example, UrFU prepares appropriate personnel for undergraduate and graduate programs with a group of ChTPZ, VSMPO-Avisma and other enterprises.

“We also began to actively work with colleges, we are creating joint programs with them,” Sheshukov notes. - The UrFU project "Engineering Reconstruction" has great prospects - we expect more enterprises to join in. A student must see that, having received an education from us, he will then come to a specific enterprise and he will certainly be hired with a decent salary. "