Moving Towards Success

18:48, September 21, 2012

Ural Federal University retains its place in QS World University Rankings TOP-500

The leading higher education institution in the Urals and also one of the largest among the federal universities, Ural Federal University has once again confirmed its position in the top 500 universities, according to the QS World University Rankings 2012.  

– This year has been especially important for us because the UrFU participated in the QS Rankings as a merged university. After the merging of the Ural State Technical University and the Ural State University – their scientific, academic, human resources – and taking into consideration the technicalities of how the rankings are made, it was particularly important not to “fail”. The University has confirmed its position and remained in the same ranking group which we consider to be a good result. In addition, we are now sixth in Russia and the first among federal universities, – said Rector Viktor Koksharov. – Our short-term target is to improve our position in the Ranking. Our further progress in rankings is essential since the position we occupy reflects the current state of affairs at the university and affects its image and worldwide recognition.   The Rector added that on the one hand, the university has all the resources necessary for its development, but on the other hand, a large university finds it more difficult to show significant growth in a short period.  

This year’s results of the QS Rankings were commented on by QS Regional Director for Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia Zoya Zaitseva.  

– We have seen steady progress made by some Russian universities since their debut on the QS rankings,- noted Zoya Zaitseva. - This is how the investments into education and international university contacts pay off. I look forward to working closely with the rectors, the Ministry of Education and Science of Russia and other interested parties to fulfill President Putin's order requiring five universities place to be in the top 100 by 2020.   The Ural Federal University among other leading Russian universities is now actively engaged in the process of internationalization, which has already become a steady global trend.  

- The University considers this project of five Russian universities entering the top 100 by 2020 to be of vital importance, - said Maxim Khomyakov, Vice-Rector for International Relations. – We invited experts – the Deputy Minister of Education and Science in the RF Igor Fedyukin, RIAC General Director Andrei Kortunov and QS Regional Director Zoya Zaitseva to conduct a strategic planning session. Their collective opinion was that the Ural Federal University stands a good chance to enter the programme and accelerate its progress towards further internationalization. However, to achieve this, we need to conduct a number of rather far-reaching reforms which, in their turn, will require serious institutional changes. First of all, we need to improve our academic reputation, for example, hold large international forums. Secondly, it’s essential to continue establishing and maintaining strong partnership with recruiters and employers. Thirdly, we should do our best to encourage not only more papers to be published but also to improve our citation ranking.  

QS Rankings analysts applied six main assessment criteria: academic peer review, citations per faculty, faculty to student ratio, recruiter review as well as international orientation. While the Rankings were being prepared, over 46,000 academic experts and 25,000 recruiters were interviewed, more than 2.5 thousand universities were surveyed and 729 universities were ranked.  

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has ranked first for the first time. University of Cambridge, the leader of 2011, came second, the third position is now held by Harvard University. Then come University College (London), University of Oxford, Imperial College (London), Yale University, University of Chicago,  Princeton University and California Institute of Technology.