St Petersburg University is among the world’s top universities according to ARWU
St Petersburg University continues to keep its high positions in the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU). It is also known as the Shanghai Ranking, and is currently considered to be the first and one of the most respected global rankings of world universities. This year, St Petersburg University has entered the 301–400 group again. Only Lomonosov Moscow State University has a higher place among Russian higher education institutions.
In total, the ranking list of 2020 includes 11 Russian universities, ranked 500 and below. Among them are: Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology; Novosibirsk State University; National Research Nuclear University MEPhI (Moscow Engineering Physics Institute); Ural Federal University; and the Higher School of Economics.
Initially, ARWU was created by Shanghai Jiao Tong University – hence its other name the Shanghai Ranking. St Petersburg University appeared in the ranking when it was first compiled, in 2003. Since then it has not dropped below the top 500 world universities. For several years in a row, St Petersburg University has been in the 301–400 group.
The Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU)
‘In the published ARWU-2020 ranking of universities, which takes into account statistics for 2019, St Petersburg University became the only Russian institution to receive scores for the highly cited researchers index. Among these researchers from St Petersburg University there are three employees who indicated St Petersburg University as their first affiliation. For this, the University received an additional 12 points. It therefore moved up several dozen places in the ranking. In the future, the University plans to attract new top scientists to the staff of St Petersburg University, as well as to promote the current employees who are suitable for this indicator,’ said Sergey Mikushev, Vice-Rector for Research of St Petersburg University.
ARWU uses six objective indicators to rank world universities These are: the number of alumni and staff winning Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals; number of highly cited researchers; number of articles published in journals of Nature and Science; number of articles indexed in Science Citation Index; and per capita performance of a university.
Additionally, since 2017, the ARWU subject ranking has also been published. It analyses the achievements of the world’s top universities in 54 disciplines (areas of research and educational activities). For reference: last year, St Petersburg University showed the best result in automation and control in Russia.