MOSCOW, December 11. /TASS/. Moscow State University has become the only Russian university represented at the first Moscow International University Ranking the results of which TASS has at its disposal.

Moscow State University (MSU) was listed as 25th. However, the top 100 also include Saint Petersburg State University (SPBU) and the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT), they rank 72nd and 73rd, correspondingly.

Ten more Russian higher educational institutions are found beyond the 100th spot. Among them are the Higher School of Economics (HSE) national research university (107), MEPhI National Research Nuclear University (131), and Novosibirsk State University (NSU) (132). Others on the beyond 100th ranking list are Tomsk Polytechnic University (TPU) (136), Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University (SPbPU) (173), Tomsk State University (176), MGIMO University (192), Kazan University (194), Ural Federal University (UrFU) (195) and the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA) (197).

The rating’s frontrunners

Harvard University scored first place in the national rating. That said the top five also include three other US higher educational institutions: Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) at clinched second place, while Stanford University took third and Yale University fourth. The University of Cambridge came in fifth closing the top five.

Going towards the top ten, the University of Oxford (UK) took sixth, the University of Michigan (US) scored seventh, Johns Hopkins University (US) eighth, while Switzerland’s Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL) came in at ninth and Princeton University (US) at tenth.

Overall, the top 200 of the Moscow International Rating of Higher Educational Institutions includes educational institutions from 39 countries.

About the rating

The Moscow International University Ranking is an academic evaluation that assesses three key missions of a university: education, science and cooperation with society. The rating uses 17 new criteria calculated on the basis of objective data and excludes subjective reputational issues. Open data from the official websites of the universities was used in it, as well as information from independent international sources.

The initiative to establish the rating was backed by leading universities from Russia, China, India, Iran, Turkey and Japan. The ranking methodology was widely publicly discussed in Russia and abroad, with more than 100 universities involved in the discussion. The rating expert council features more than 20 experts from 11 countries.

The development of the ratings was initiated by the Russian Union of Rectors under Russian President Vladimir Putin’s order. The rating is operated by the Association of Rating Compilers, which includes leading rating, and research centers (Expert RA, the Russian Public Opinion Research Center, Reputation Institute and others). State grants were used during the project implementation.