In 2021, the ranking compiled annually by the UK-based company Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) listed 450 institutions, including 60 universities that had their debut on the list. For several years on, Russian universities have been rated highly in the QS EECA University Rankings. This year’s edition included 128 Russian institutions, and ITMO University was named among the top 10 of them.
“The series of regional QS rankings launched in 2014 with the release of the first-ever BRICS countries ranking and then the ranking of the best universities in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Right away, ITMO University made appearances in both rankings – at first closer to the 100th place. Within seven years, the university continued to strengthen its positions without ever falling down the ranking. And here we are now, right in the top 6% of the best universities in Eastern Europe and Central Asia,” says Ilya Kuftiryov, the head of ITMO’s Rankings Research Center.
The QS EECA methodology includes ten main criteria that institutions must meet to advance in the ranking. Among ITMO’s strengths are the indicators of the faculty/student ratio and internationalization, as well as the number of papers per faculty member. Compared to last year, ITMO improved its performance in such indicators as academic and employer reputation.
Ilya Kuftiryov. Photo by Dmitry Grigoryev, ITMO.NEWS
“The ranking places a great emphasis on how the academic community (lecturers and scientists) and various enterprises rank this or that university. To receive an expert assessment from companies, every year QS conducts online surveys among thousands of respondents. It goes without saying that US and UK-based institutions, which often have a long and rich history, tend to maintain a strong presence in the ranking. Surely, they are hard to compete with reputation-wise, however, it is always a pleasure to see ITMO going up in this respect. And, first and foremost, it is the merit of the completed Project 5-100, thanks to which more people across the globe learned about our university,” concludes Ilya Kuftiryov.
The complete ranking can be found here.
