Universities were evaluated according to nine criteria: the ones that contribute the most to a university’s position in the ranking are academic reputation and employer reputation (30 and 20 percent of the overall score, respectively). The overall scores also take into account faculty-to-student ratio, papers-per-faculty, web impact, number of staff with Ph.D., citations per paper, international faculty and international students.
Since the ranking’s first appearance, ITMO University has steadily gained positions: the total growth over the four installments amounts to 25 positions. This year, the increase can be credited to such criteria as academic and employer reputation, papers-per-faculty and web impact. Notably, the latter criterion has been the most beneficial for the university: ITMO is rated 23rd according to its web impact value. This growth is caused by improvement in the university’s position in the latest Webometrics ranking. The overall score has increased too; this value is higher than the average score among the top-200, as well as among the Russian universities.
A significant increase has occurred in university’ citations per paper in the period of 2011-2015, as compared to the 2010-2014 period: the number has increased by 3.6 times. Such a rapid growth is partially related to this year’s change in methodology, which expands the time window for citations evaluated from 5 to 6 years.
It should be noted that a significant amount of growth is credited to the citations dated from 2016, which, undoubtedly, shows a positive trend. This, as well as the increase in the paper-per-faculty ratio, shows that, while the normalized value of the university’s citations per paper is below the average value for the ranking’s universities, there is great potential for growth of ITMO University’s citation index.
“Experts have noted several times the interdependence between the reputation and citation indexes. This is determined, in part, by the fact that it is impossible to receive a larger number of citations without the papers being discussed and pointed out in the academic community. The active promotions of our authors’ works, including through science communication methods, can ensure further growth of ITMO University’s citations-per-paper index – therefore leading to an increase in its academic reputation” – comments Ilya Kuftiryov, head of ITMO University’s Rankings Research Center.
The top two places on the ranking were also taken up by Russian universities – the Moscow State University and Novosibirsk State University. In the third place is the University of Tartu (Finland), while the St. Petersburg State University placed fourth.
The full results of QS EECA University Rankings can be seen here.
