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Moscow State University climbs global rankings in arts and humanities

Moscow University has climbed 15 places in the Times Higher Education’s global ranking for arts and humanities subjects

MOSCOW, September 13. /TASS/. Moscow State University (MSU) has been ranked 51st in the Times Higher Education’s global ranking for arts and humanities subjects, the university’s press service said on Wednesday.

"Moscow University has climbed 15 places compared with the 66th position in 2016," the press service pointed out, adding that Moscow State University was the sole Russian university included in the rankings.

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"Russian universities usually score high in science-related rankings, while they fall far behind as far as humanitarian subjects are concerned," the MSU press service went on to say. "We are pleased to have been able to demonstrate once again our strong points in the humanities area. We have jumped 15 places in the ranking compared with the previous year - a fact which reflects the highest research capabilities of our historians, philologists, art scholars and archeologists," the press service quoted MSU head Viktor Sadovnichy as saying.

He offered up the example of joint projects involving MSU archeologists and their European, US, South Korean and Japanese colleagues, which allowed to make discoveries of international significance, as well as to build and maintain contacts with the global educational and research communities.

Sadovnichy also stressed that articles by MSU researchers were published in leading international magazines, including Nature, Antiquity, The Journal of Archaeological Science, Quaternary International and The Journal of the Historical Metallurgy Society just to name a few.

Among the recent major projects that have grabbed worldwide attention, Sadovnichy mentioned expeditions to the city of Veliky Novgorod and the laboratory results of the local studies, as well as the studies of close ties between Slavic population and the Vikings in Gnyozdovo. He also pointed to the exploration results of the Scythian mounds in the Stavropol region, the Stone Age monuments in the Rostov region and in the Southern Urals. "The results of studying the anthropological contents from the Kapova Cave, dating back to the Bronze Age, have been published in one of the most cited profile articles in the Nature journal," the MSU head concluded.

Times Higher Education rankings

According to the Times Higher Education rankings’ website, "the 2018 Times Higher Education World University Rankings’ table for arts and humanities subjects employs the same rigorous and balanced range of 13 performance indicators used in the overall World University Rankings, but the methodology has been recalibrated to suit the individual fields." The performance indicators are grouped into five areas - teaching, research, citations, international outlook and industry income.

The fields considered for the arts and humanities category include art, performing arts, languages, history, philosophy, theology, architecture and archaeology.

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