St Petersburg University keeps its positions in the Times Higher Education (THE) ranking
2 September saw the publication of the results of the annual ranking of the world’s top universities the Times Higher Education World University Ranking 2022. St Petersburg University keeps its positions in the overall ranking. It also showed growth in three groups of indicators out of five.
This year, the Times Higher Education ranking compilers evaluated 1,662 world’s top universities, which is 135 participants more compared to last year. The number of Russian universities has also increased from 48 to 60. Despite the increased competition, St Petersburg University showed growth in most groups of indicators. Improvement was registered in: research activities; industry income; and international outlook.
The top score was obtained by St Petersburg University for the Teaching indicator – 43.7 points. According to this group of performance indicators, it ranks 164th in the world and is included in 9.8% of the top universities.
The University pays much attention to the introduction of digital technologies in the teaching and learning process. This approach enabled the staff and students to adapt quickly to the dramatically changed learning environment during the pandemic. St Petersburg University actually became the leader in online education. It was the first university in Russia to provide open access to its online courses. This helps regional universities to implement an online component, and students can have their credits for the studied courses transferred. Additionally, online courses make it possible for foreign citizens from all over the world to assess the level of teaching at St Petersburg University and make a decision on admission.
The THE World University Rankings, compiled by the British Times Higher Education since 2004, are among the four most respected world university rankings (MosIUR, QS, ARWU and THE). The table is based on 13 performance indicators grouped in five areas: Teaching (the learning environment); Citations (research influence); Research (volume, income and reputation); Industry income (knowledge transfer); and International outlook (staff, students and research). Ranked list compilers collect data from three sources: they request statistical information from universities; study the Scopus bibliographic database; and also interview experts from the academic community.