The decision to set up the ad hoc group was made by the Council of the Russian Rectors' Union and the executive committee of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
The ad hoc group comprises representatives of the Russian Rectors' Union, Russian Academy of Sciences, and Russian Academy of Education. It will focus on enhancing the Three University Missions Ranking. One of the group’s missions is to introduce the ranking into business decision-making.
According to the President of the Russian Rectors' Union Viktor Sadovnichiy, the Three University Missions Ranking has changed the international approach to assessment as the ranking takes into account all three missions of a classical university — education, science, and impact on the society. And it is the third mission that reflects a university’s usefulness for its country. - It is vitally important for Russia, - he emphasized.
Rector of the Russian New University (RosNOU) Vladimir Zernov who has been appointed a co-head of the ad hoc group thinks that in Russia ranking results are not used adequately to assess the efficiency of universities' activities even though rankings are a transparent indicator of the work of both higher education institutions and scientific organizations. - Universities' mission is to ensure quality training of specialists and generate new knowledge. Scientific organizations have the same mission. Therefore criteria for assessing higher education institutions and scientific organizations should coincide. The fact that representatives of higher school and scientific community will actively take part in enhancing the ranking’s methodology together has a tremendous positive value, - commented Vladimir Zernov.
The executive secretary of the joint ad hoc group, director general of the Association of Ranking Compilers Dmitriy Grishankov elaborated on the process of enhancing the Three Missions ranking family group: - The circle of the scientific and pedagogical community engaged in the ranking’s development is being dramatically expanded. The joint ad hoc group has very ambitious goals: to extend the ranking’s approaches to scientific organizations, use the ranking’s experience in building the system of assessing universities and scientific organizations at the scientific and technical level as well as broaden the ranking’s use in the government’s activities.
The Vice-President of the Russian Rectors' Union, President of Lobachevsky State University of Nizhny Novgorod Roman Strongin has been appointed the head of the ad hoc group. The Vice-President of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS), head of the Federal Research Center of Problems of Chemical Physics and Medicinal Chemistry of RAS academician Sergey Aldoshin has become the group’s second co-head.
Read more on the topic at the RAEX website.
