The current interest in the subjects’ rankings is caused by the fact that the strengths of many Russian universities’ scientific and educational activity are largely determined by their specialization. When compiling the general academic rankings the classical universities usually get the advantage - the wide profile school will take one of the TOP-100 top lines more likely than high school, which entire publication activity is centered around one or two subjects. In addition, while preparing the Project 5/100 competitiveness improvement programs many universities focused on the promotion exactly in the subjects’ rankings.
"Last year, the theme of such events was mainly about the universities’ general rankings and a key emphasis in their methodology. Now we are more deeply immersed in the comparison of different ranking systems. The subjects’ rankings are the best opportunity to compare yourself in certain areas, to show strengths," Mikhail Antonov says, the director of the Project 5/100 Management office.
During the substantive session, Waldemar Sivinsky, the president of the Perspektywy education fund, said that the subjects’ rankings are a transitional stage between the traditional elite universities rankings and rankings of the future, which will take into account more features of the world universities. Alex Usher, the president of the Higher Education Statistics Agency and the chief editor of the Global Higher Education Strategy Monitor, in his report supplemented the Sivinsky report with some specific tips for strengthening the position of the university. According to Asher, to increase the number of publications in reputable scientific journals, the authors should pay more attention to the advanced methods of solving problems of today. The cooperation with leading experts from those areas, which are investigated by the scientists in Russian universities, will help to increase the number of joint publications.
In many cases, the rating positions are effected by the reputational survey results, however, such an audit does not always reflect the reality. According to Dmitry Grishankov, the CEO of the Expert RA rating agencies international group, during the surveys in Russia and abroad the employers allocate traditional leaders of the education system, but prefer to hire graduates from secondary positions universities. Richard Holmes, the University Ranking Watch blog editor, also noted the share of partiality of such methods: according to his research, the reputational surveys results are not always transparent and plausible. Therefore, when comparing the QS World University Rankings and the Times Higher Education international platforms, expert believes that the latter is more relevant to reality.
Vadim Sobolev, a representative of the Scopus database development company, in his speech stressed that according to the scientometric indicators global analysis results, Russian universities are far behind the world leaders in the field of medicine and social sciences; therefore it is necessary to focus on precise, technical disciplines. A similar view is held by Ekaterina Mikhailova, the head of the ITMO University Strategic Planning and Ranking Research Department. According to her, to promote "non-classical" universities in the TOP-100 lists, the subjects’ rankings suit best, so universities should promote international cooperation and encourage the publication activity of individual scientific disciplines.
"Many leading universities, such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, hold high positions both in general and in subjects’ rankings. However, other universities can not in a few years become the same leaders in all directions at once. The subjects’ rankings are the main opportunity for the Project 5/100 participants to show their strengths and so it makes sense to focus on them," Ekaterina Mihailova says.
The head of the Strategic Planning department emphasizes that the seminar led a discussion about the positioning to a new level, to a conscious understanding of the need to strengthen the position in the subjects’ rankings.
We note that currently the popularity and credibility of the universities are evaluated by a number of different platforms, among them, there is the Academic Ranking of World Universities Shanghai rating, Dutch-German U-Multirank, US News & World Report which specialize in business, as well as the Leiden University Ranking, Times Higher Education and QS World University Rankings. Initial scientometric indicators of citation and publication activity of universities and individual scientists are provided in Scopus and Web of Science databases.