LONDON, December 05, 14:12 /ITAR-TASS/. Lomonosov Moscow State University (MSU) ranks 10th among the ten best universities in countries of the BRICS alliance and emerging economies, rankings released on Thursday by the influential British publication Times Higher Education showed.
Spokeswoman Fan Langdon told Itar-Tass this was the publication's first-ever exercise to score the best universities of 22 countries, including members of the Brazil, Russia, India and China BRICS group.
These were the focus of economic growth and development and MSU's emergence in the top ten was Russia’s undoubted brilliant success, she said.
St. Petersburg State University was rated 67th of the 100 institutions in the rankings.
The publication's chief editor, Phil Betty, said the ranking of only two Russian universities among the best was disappointing and should give Russia additional impetus for greater representation.
Peking University topped the table, followed by another Chinese university, Tsinghua University, and South Africa's University of Cape Town. These were followed by National Taiwan University; Boğaziçi University, Turkey; University of Science and Technology of China; Istanbul Technical University, Turkey; Shanghai Fudan University, China; and Middle East Technical University,Turkey.
The rankings comprise 23 Chinese universities, 21 from Taiwan, 10 from India and seven from Turkey. South Africa and Thailand have five universities each in the ranking, Poland and Brazil are represented by four and the Czech Republic, Hungary and Egypt by three. Malaysia, Mexico, Chile and the United Arab Emirates, like Russia, have two universities each.
Asked what Russian universities needed to do to expand their presence in the rankings next year, publication spokeswoman Langdon cited extending international ties, attracting foreign students and financial support.