HSE Ranks Among Top 60 Best Young Universities Worldwide in THE Ranking

Phil Baty, Chief Knowledge Officer, Times Higher Education

In 2019 the Higher School of Economics has climbed from 84^th to 60^th place in the Time Higher Education (THE) world ranking of young universities. HSE University is the only Russian university to place in the top 100 of this ranking.

Phil Baty, Chief Knowledge Officer at THE, said, ‘I would like to congratulate the Higher School of Economics on its breakthrough to 60^th place in the Times Higher Education ranking of young universities. This ranking not only demonstrates the categorical leadership of HSE University among Russian universities under 50 years old, but also demonstrates that HSE University is one of the best universities in the world today. It is obvious that the Higher School of Economics is a rising star in the world of higher education, which has achieved outstanding success in teaching and research in just a few decades since its founding in 1992. The university first entered the THE ranking of young universities in 2017 at around hundredth place, and today it is approaching the Top 50. HSE University’s advancement is the result of its development of a multi-faceted and balanced spectrum of THE criteria. But the main factor of its success is the university’s increasing ability to attract external funding for scholarly research, as well as, above all, the increasing influence of HSE’s scholarly publications.’

The ranking includes universities established within the last 50 years, and it is derived methodologically from THE’s main ranking, which is published in the fall.

‘HSE is encroaching upon the top 50, closing the gap by almost two thirds compared to last year. Now there remain 10 difficult positions ahead to enter the fifty best young universities in the world,’ said Irina Karelina, Senior Director for Strategic Development at HSE. However, she noted, ‘entry into the rankings is not an end in itself. It is important for us to overcome the “disadvantage” of young universities—the necessity to develop our academic reputation globally. It is no coincidence that the methodology of the ratings of young universities weights for the composite factors of the rating differently. HSE University performs well in institutional rankings, competing with eminent “old” universities.’

The ranking criteria are similar to the general institutional ranking, but their respective assigned weights reflect the specifics of young universities who have not yet managed to gain the necessary academic reputation: while reputation is weighed at 33% in the general institutional ranking, it carries a lesser weight of 22% in the ranking of young universities, and the remaining percentage points are redistributed among other criteria.

Unlike most of the universities represented in the ranking, HSE University was indeed created in 1992 from scratch. Many of the other universities in the ranking appeared as a result of structural reorganizations that occurred within the last 50 years.

Since its founding, HSE University marked its 25^th anniversary in 2017 by joining the THE’s top 100 ranking of young universities, and in 2 years it has improved its standing by almost 40 positions. The university has grown from a single programme in economics into a comprehensive global university. HSE University continues to strengthen not only its longstanding programmes in economics, sociology and political sciences, but also its recently opened programmes that have already gained international recognition, such as mathematics and computer science, as well as programmes that are brand new, such as physics, chemistry, biology and biotechnology.