Saratov State University keeps its leading positions in national and world rankings. Along with twenty Russian universities, SSU is again among the best world universities according to QS World University Rankings.
The ranking was published on September 15. SSU proved the high quality of education it gives and kept its position – number 121-130 among BRICS countries and 601-650 in the world.
21 Russian universities are included in the top 1000 best universities of the world. Lomonosov Moscow State University has the leading position. Saratov State University is the only university of the region included in the ranking.
On September 15, 2015 QS World University Ranking results were presented at multimedia press center “Russia Today” followed by a press conference of leading universities’ rectors.
Among the press conference participants were Plekhanov Russian University of Economics Rector V.I. Grishin, National Research Nuclear University MEPhI Rector M.N. Strikhanov, Novosibirsk State University Rector M.P. Fedoruk, Saratov State University Rector A.N. Chumachenko, National University of Science and Technology “MIS&S” Rector A.A. Chernikova. Vice-rectors, university workers and journalists were among the guests. The meeting concerned the preliminary results of the world university rankings and changes in the evaluation system.
Ranking authors tried to take into account a university orientation as it did not allow to evaluate fairly “classic” and “discipline-specific” universities. QS regional director for Eastern Europe and Asia Z.O. Zaitseva talked about in full detail in an interview to “Vedomosti”: “Before, when analyzing Scopus data for QS World University Rankings, we used to consider total results. But taking into account uneven productivity of scientists in different areas of knowledge, we decided to consider it in our approach. According to Scopus data, 49% of quotes are in life sciences and medicine, 6% - social sciences and only 1% - liberal arts. But if we look at the number of students studying those disciplines, the situation is reversed. For example, in Great Britain, 55% of students are involved in those areas that give those 7% of quotes. So we have developed a slide scale that helps to evaluate and normalize citation index depending on total number of quotes, language of publication, a country’s productivity in that sphere of knowledge”.
At the conference SSU Rector A.N. Chumachenko told about Saratov State University participation in QS Rankings. “We are new to the ranking and entered it only last year. It was important to ask to keep our position in 2015. we stayed at the same group (601-650) which is quite a good result for a Russian university. We’ve done a lot of work: studies the criteria, tried to find our advantages and built on them. Position in QS Rankings is important for SSU because it allows us to look critically at ourselves. We have introduced new educational programs and improved our h-index”.
Answering the questions, A.N. Chumachenko mentioned that Saratov University teaches both technical and liberal arts disciplines. SSU Rector fully supports QS Rankings authors’ idea to change the rules regularly as each university strives to improve its weaknesses.
A.N. Chumachenko also talked about how SSU manages to keep its position in QS World University Rankings: “The University is 106 years old; in those years, scientific and educational schools have been formed and are now successfully developing. In 2007, we won the innovative projects competition, and in 2010 the University was awarded National Research University status. Our place in QS Rankings is no coincidence; it is a logical step in our development”.
World University Rankings uses six evaluation criteria: academic reputation; reputation among employers; faculty/student ratio; citation index; number of foreign students; number of oforeign teachers.
In 2015, the QS World University Rankings include 82 countries. This year, Massachusetts Institute of Technology is number one; Harvard University improved its position and got second place; Cambridge University and Stanford University share the third place; California Institute of Technology is number five.
Saratov State University gets included in the QS World University Ranking the second year in a row. Since 2014, SSU is also at the top-200 QS University Rankings BRICS and top-100 QS World University Ranking: Developing Europe and Central Asia.
