LONDON, September 16. /ITAR-TASS/. Moscow’s Lomonosov State University (MGU) has taken 114th position in the rankings of top world universities, up six places on 2013 and the only Russian academic institution in the first 200, according to Quacquarelli Symonds' QS World University Rankings 2014, made public on Tuesday.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology tops the chart, as last year. The University of Cambridge comes second, improving its position on 2013. Imperial College London is third.

Harvard University is fourth, followed by the University of Oxford and University College London (UCL). Seventh, eighth, ninth and 10 positions are occupied by American universities Stanford, California Institute of Technology (Caltech), Princeton and Yale.

St. Petersburg State University ranks 233rd, up seven places on 2013. Bauman Moscow State Technical University and Novosibirsk State University are 322nd and 328th respectively in the rankings. Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO) is 399th.

Rankings rate 863 universities, 21 of them Russian. Locations also include Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia, St. Petersburg State Polytechnic University, Tomsk State University, National Research University Higher School of Economics, Tomsk Polytechnic University, Kazan Federal University, Ural Federal University, Southern and Far Eastern Federal Universities, Lobachevsky State University of Nizhny Novgorod, Plekhanov Russian University of Economics and Voronezh State University.

First-time entrants into the rankings are National Research Nuclear University MEPhI (Moscow Engineering Physics Institute), National University of Science and Technology “MISIS” and National Research Saratov State University.

“In the wake of the recession, both governments and private sector funding sources are placing greater emphasis on high-impact science, technology engineering and math research, much of which takes place in specialist institutions,” said Ben Sowter, QS head of research.

“Tech-focused institutions are increasingly the focal point of a global race for innovation,” he said. “With budgets from public sources increasingly coming under strain, institutions seem more focused than ever on potentially lucrative research in science, technology and medicine.