From 30th of September to 2nd of October Melbourne, Australia has hosted the summit of the international rating of Universities THE – Times Higher Education World Academic Summit. It is to be recalled that in the overall ranking MEPhI was ranked the 3rd position among Russian universities – participants of the project 5-100, entering the 301-350 group.
The rating included 13 universities from Russia, 9 of which are participants of the project 5-100 versus 2 in the last year. The first reason is effective measures taken by universities of the project 5-100. The second reason is increase in the number of sample’s participants from 400 to 800. The third reason is that a limit on the number of publications in a single subject area was removed from the rating. In 2013 and 2014 a university had to have no more than 80% of publications in a single subject area. This factor did not allow such educational insitutions as MEPhI to enter THE overall rating.
On the 1st of October rector of MEPhI Mikhail Strikhanov made a speech at the summit in panel discussion “The role of industry collaboration in driving research & education excellence”. It should be noted that it was the first time in the history of THE rating and summits when Russian rector was a speaker at such event. Mikhail Strikhanov focused on two aspects in the report: a brief review of the University with an emphasis on cooperation with industry and exception of collaborations from consideration in the rankings. The second theme is particularly important because the most important discoveries of modern science in physics and life sciences are committed just in large international partnerships. The cost of each of these projects may reach tens of billions of dollars. Each participating University provides tens and hundreds of scientists who invest their potential in collective discovery. So it is a very dangerous strategy to exclude the most important results of science from consideration in the rankings; it can mislead both universities and their sponsoring states and agencies.
