World Reputation Rankings 2014

Last week Times Higher Education (THE) released the results of the latest higher education league table: the World Reputation Ranking. This year Moscow’s Lomonosov University is placed just outside the top 50, having been positioned 50th in 2013. Though this doesn’t sound particularly impressive to anyone who knows the history and prestige of Russia’s principal institute, I am pleasantly surprised to see such a result when THE’s World University Ranking continually ranks Lomonosov well outside the top 200.

US universities dominate the Reputation Ranking, as is the norm of any global higher education categorisation. The top 50 is populated by universities from North America and Britain, as well as a few rising stars from Asia, including Japan, China, Singapore and North Korea. Lomonosov, however, once again lies ahead of universities that rank highly on quantitative rankings, such as the Sorbonne in Paris or Germany’s Universität Heidelberg.

As I have previously argued (see BRICS & Emerging Economies Rankings 2014), Russian universities fall short of many of the categories assessed in the compilation of standard higher education league tables, whether conducted by THE, The Guardian or QS. So, contrary to the popular league tables, these new rankings based on reputation alone show Russian universities haven’t got it all wrong and they are making significant contributions to academia.