St. Petersburg State University has not been able to get into the list of the top 200 QS – RBC

Related articles:

St. Petersburg State University (SPSU) again failed to get into the list of top universities, compiled by the British company Quacquarelli Symonds (QS).

Recall that in 2012. Putin issued a decree according to which by 2020 is necessary to ensure entry into the ranking of the best universities QS for at least five Russian universities. As a result, Russia’s only university, which came in the top 200 according to QS, was the Moscow State University, he took the 114th place. Compared with last year, University Rankings improved the result by six positions. St. Petersburg State University is located on a 233-m site (last year was the 240th).

The other universities have not been even a third hundred. Bauman Moscow State University ranked 322 th place (in 2013. – 334-e), and Novosibirsk State University – 328-e (a year ago he was on the 358 th place).

in the top ten best universities in the world have taken educational institutions from the United States and Great Britain. Rating headed Massachusetts Institute of Technology, second place went to the University of Cambridge, located on the third line of Imperial College London. Harvard and Oxford Universities took fourth and fifth places respectively.

is not an end in itself

QS annually assesses about 3 thousand. Higher education institutions worldwide. Universities are evaluated on six criteria: academic reputation, the ratio of teachers to the number of students, the citation index, reputation among employers of foreign students and the proportion of foreign teachers. Russian universities usually show a high ratio of professors to students, but the low citation index and a small number of foreign teachers.

The success of Russian universities in other international rankings also say it is not necessary. For example, in the Shanghai ranking MSU this year took 79 th place ranking, St. Petersburg State University was in the fourth hundred.

And at MSU, and St. Petersburg State University do not get tired to say that the international ratings are skeptical. In particular, in a February interview with the newspaper “Neva time” rector of the St. Petersburg University Nikolai Kropachev said that the level of knowledge of SPSU graduates are among the leading universities in the world: “On the other hand, the international ratings and criteria used in them – an important tool for decision-making. Analyzing our position on specific indicators, we see over what issues we need to work in the first place. Getting high rankings in foreign places for us is not an end in itself ».

Where does the money go?

However, to obtain public funding for places in the ranking are much more important . In recent years, the authorities are taking steps to achieve the competitiveness of domestic universities. Thus, the Moscow State University and St. Petersburg State University a special status, these institutions receive significant resources to invest in development. In the summer of 2014. Dmitry Mevedev signed a decree according to which the St. Petersburg State University (SPSU) in the next two years will receive 2 billion rubles in the program for the development of institutions of higher education until 2020. The total amount of budget financing of the university is more than 10 billion rubles. a year, said N.Kropachev magazine “Expert” in the beginning of this year.

According to an international expert in the field of education Jameela Salmiya and head of the Institute of Education HSE Isak Frumin, we can not say that the Russian university education was a serious breakthrough. In the article “How to achieve international competitiveness of the state universities: Lessons for Russia,” which was published by OPEC, they note that the scientific productivity of the Moscow State University and St. Petersburg State University, and their attractiveness to talent from all over the world there are almost no increase. Scientific activity in the federal universities is also growing significantly. But to say that to say that investing in university education are inconclusive, experts still are not solved. It would be frivolous to expect quick results in this field, and consider Dzh.Salmi I.Frumin. According to them, the cycle of formation of advanced scientific groups even when importing core competencies range from three to seven years. Note that the program of development of St. Petersburg State University until 2020 was approved by the Russian government in 2010.

September 16, 2014

RBC