RosNOU at forefront of private education

On 30th August, the sixth edition of the Moscow University International Ranking “The Three University Missions” (MosIUR) was released. It included 1,800 higher education institutions from 103 countries. Same as last year, Harvard and Massachusetts Institute of Technology took the first and the second positions respectively, followed by Cambridge, Oxford, and the University College London.

Russia was represented in the ranking by 146 universities. Lomonosov Moscow State University, Saint Petersburg State University, and Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology were included in the top 50. Only two of the Russian universities that found their way into the ranking are private – REAVIZ Medical University and Russian New University.

The ranking assesses three crucial missions of the university: education, research, and social impact. According to the director general of the Association of Ranking Compilers Dmitriy Grishankov, the expansion of the ranking list from 1,650 to 1,800 became possible due to the improvement of universities’ information transparency and the growth of competitiveness of the participants, especially from BRICS countries. The sixth edition of the international ranking also showed the increase in the number of Russian universities that were included in the published part.

According to ranking compilers, competitive strengths of Russian higher education institutions include successful participation of students in international knowledge competitions (Olympiads), high percentage of international students, and diversity of online courses. However, Russian universities “sag” in such areas as funding, citation of scientific publications, and the number of academic staff.

Among Russian universities, RosNOU was ranked 113–146. Russian New University succeeds in keeping the brand due to its responsible approach to arranging the educational process and teaching academic disciplines (RosNOU scored 48% in the educational mission) and the vigorous social activities of its students and academic staff  (40 % in the third mission – social impact). Among world universities RosNOU was ranked 1651–1800.