Global ranking of universities: a view from Russia

Abstract

The Article is devoted to the recently introduced fundamentally new Moscow international rating of higher education institutions ‘Three missions of the University' (MosIUR). Its creation was initiated by the Russian Union of rectors and is caused by an attempt to eliminate existing distortions in the rating. The author emphasizes that the main components of the assessment of universities - the voices of experts and citation of scientific works of scientists of the University - knowingly determine the preferences for universities in English-speaking countries. This approach significantly reduces the position of Russian universities. In addition, according to the author, such criterion as the influence of the University on the development of society is not considered at all by the authors of the most authoritative and popular ratings. And the quality of education received by its students is not the main indicator of the quality of the university. At the same time, it is in this area that Russian universities have very strong positions - the quality of education in Russian universities remains at one of the highest levels in the world. The rating showed that the most successful universities can be considered, in which the three main components of evaluation are harmoniously combined - educational, scientific and influence on society. The group of criteria ‘University and society' was considered by the authors and creators of the rating for the first time in the world practice of rating universities. According to the author, this will serve as a powerful impetus for research of the mission of the university's influence on society around the world, which can be seen not only as improving the global ratings of universities, but also as the total development of higher education.