Today you will not be presented with a completely complete rating of Russian universities, but the best of the best institutions that are recommended for thousands of students. If you want to get a decent higher education, this material is especially for you. Now more!
Rating system: statistics and methodology
From year to year, school graduates ask one and the same question: “Where to go?” The RAEX agency, working with the assistance of the Volnoe Delo Foundation, can answer this question for the fourth year in a row, making up the annual ranking of Russian universities.
The research methodology is quite simple - the rating was compiled on the basis of a survey of seventeen thousand respondents from various social groups, one way or another connected with universities, institutes and academies: students, graduates, teachers and employers. The criteria by which the rating is compiled are three:
- conditions for quality education;
- demand for graduates after graduation;
- conditions for conducting research activities.
The best of the best
Like all previous years, the last ranking of Russian universities was headed by Moscow State University. Lomonosov. This institution simply has no competitors in terms of the quality of research activities and the conditions for obtaining a truly worthy education.
Other rating leaders also demonstrate very stable results from year to year: St. Petersburg State University, St. Petersburg State Polytechnical University, Tomsk State and Polytechnic Universities. Do not forget about the Kazan, Siberian and Ural federal institutes, as well as the Novosibirsk Technical University and Novosibirsk State University, which are invariably among the twenty best educational institutions of the country. It should be noted that for the first time the NRNU "MEPhI" entered the top three, this time bypassing MSTU. Bauman.
Dynamics and key parameters
As mentioned above, rating the best universities in Russia consists of several key parameters. The main ones are the quality of education, the demand for graduates and their further salary, as well as the conditions for conducting research activities.
Rating of Russian universities by quality of education heads, of course, Moscow State University. Lomonosov, followed by MGIMO and MIPT. In demand, graduates have no equal to MSTU. Bauman, Moscow State University Lomonosov and Russian State University of Oil and Gas. Gubkin. As for research activities, then there are no equal to Moscow State University. Lomonosov, MEPhI and TPU.
As for the dynamics of popularity of higher education institutions from year to year, there is no equal to the Russian State University of Oil and Gas, which has risen as much as 4 positions this year. Worse than before, this year NIU “MEI” and NSTU showed themselves.
Specificity
Of course, the ranking of Russian universities also takes into account the types of education received by students (from year to year there has been a steady increase in the popularity of technical universities and institutes, which cannot be said about humanitarian, medical), and more specific types of higher education institutions. "Techies" are still in much greater demand among employers than their colleagues in other areas.
In this context, it is worth recalling the ranking of demand for Russian universities.Despite the fact that it is much easier for graduates of technical specialties to find a well-paid job, most applicants tend to get to faculties related to economics and management.
Head this TOP MGIMO University, HSE and Moscow State University. Of course, it should be noted that most of the top managers of the largest companies in Russia are graduates of economic universities and specialties. Equal in this regard is no Moscow State University, Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation and RANEPA under the President of the Russian Federation.
Other areas of study
You may notice that many of the institutions that occupy any place in the TOP-20 teach all types of classical specialties, and even if the institute is at the very top of the list, this does not guarantee the quality of education in a narrow non-core specialty.
The biggest questions are raised by two non-core specialties - legal and medical. Also, many graduates are concerned about the rating of military universities in Russia, rarely represented in the top twenty. And now more about jurisprudence.
Law education
The rating of Russian law schools is based on the same principles as the main list, but, of course, with a smaller number of respondents, which somewhat reduces its accuracy.
Without any surprises, the first three lines of the ranking of legal educational institutions in demand by employers are occupied by Moscow State University. Lomonosov Moscow State Law Academy and St. Petersburg State University. If we talk about the quality of education itself, then the first five include MGIMO, NRU “HSE”, Moscow State University Lomonosov, St. Petersburg State University and Moscow State Law Academy. The criterion of research activities for legal specialties does not apply. In any case, in all such studies, it is clearly seen that in universities (in the classical sense of the word) legal education is an order of magnitude better than in other institutions.
Medical education
The ranking of medical universities in Russia turned out to be somewhat more difficult. This is due to an even smaller number of respondents and the extremely low prevalence of private medical services in our country, which cannot give a clear picture in terms of the demand for graduates.
In any case, statistical studies about the quality of education and the conditions for obtaining it in this area are more than enough to compile a rating of medical universities in Russia.
In first place is the First Moscow State University. Sechenov, founded in 1758. He is followed on the heels of the Voronezh State Medical Academy named after Burdenko, Omsk State Medical Academy, RNIU im. Pirogov and Samara State Medical University.
Of course, Russia has something to be proud of in terms of innovation and innovation in the field of medicine, but at the moment the quality of medical education in the Russian Federation leaves much to be desired.
Military education
The rating of Russian military universities is compiled by other standards than other lists. It’s hard for civilians to understand what these criteria are, but the research results are quite clear - the IMF frontier guard of the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation, the Military Space Academy named after A.I. Mozhaisky, Academy of the FSB of the Russian Federation and the Military University of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation.
First of all, graduates of these institutions can hope for a quick and successful growth in the rank in the armed forces of the Russian Federation. Of course, the specifics of military education makes itself felt when compiling a rating. But in the end, who better than the state knows best, from which university graduates the best defenders, strategists and law enforcement officers are obtained.
Problems in higher education in Russia
The main and main problem of higher education in Russia is financing. The prestige of the university does not guarantee that the budget will not be cut for a particular specialty, and that this will not affect the quality of the knowledge students receive.
Nominally (that is, on paper), funding per student for the year increased by 1 percent, but given the inflation of eleven percent, the future of higher education in the Russian Federation leaves much to be desired.
Lack of funding will affect the salaries of teachers. But the most important thing that future entrants should be wary of is a possible reduction in the number of budget places in the specialty of interest. If it is popular and successful, then it does not threaten anything, but if the specialty is rather narrow and cannot boast of large funding, there is every chance that the number of seats will be cut next year.
Those who are already studying at the university could feel the consequences of lack of funding on their own, for example, in the form of reduced scholarships or reduced targeted programs or even entire departments.
And where are the teachers?
Another important issue of our higher education at the moment is the pronounced problems with the professional teaching staff. For the past five years, the number of teachers per 100 students (faculty) has been steadily falling. If last year the indicator was 8.33 teachers per 100 students, then this year it is already 8.05.
It becomes quite obvious that universities simply do not know how to keep graduates after their undergraduate studies. On the one hand, the master's program does not provide any significant advantages when applying for a job and two years of career growth for most students who do not see themselves as university workers in the future prevail over the prospect of spending another two years on training.
On the other hand, the first factor plays a huge role - financing. If we take the average income of the teaching staff with a scientific degree not lower than an assistant professor, everything is pretty good there, there is no point in denying this. The problem is that most of this income is not income from teaching at all, but premiums for writing scientific articles and participating in research. The salary of a university employee for directly teaching is ridiculous, especially in comparison with foreign universities.
Thus, any university employee is much more interested in writing another scientific work than in the teaching process itself. If we take into account the factor of a very mediocre level of knowledge of the majority of current applicants, it is clear why for many employees of institutes, teaching is becoming an unpleasant necessity rather than the main activity that they really want to do.
findings
Modern methods of assessing higher education institutions are very accurate, and applicants can and should be guided when choosing their future place of study on the rating of Russian universities. But it is also worth considering factors of perspective and financing, which are simply not displayed in such studies.
If we talk about Moscow or St. Petersburg universities, then applicants focusing on them have nothing to fear - their funding remains at the proper level. But as soon as it comes to good, but provincial institutions and universities, all sorts of ratings can not give a full picture.
It is worth remembering that such studies do not take into account such important indicators as international cooperation, the integration of foreign students and other similar factors.
Thus, in this article, we presented the top ranking of Russian universities, discussed the best educational institutions, talked about different types of education, and touched on topical issues of the system.
