On 23 June, Forbes published the Universities for the Future Elite: 100 Best Russian Universities. Voronezh State University took 31st place. The experts considered the following three sets of parameters: the quality of education, the quality of graduates, and the Forbes factor.
This year, the approach to the evaluation of universities has changed. A new parameter, the quality of academic staff, has been added to the “quality of education” metrics, which were based, as in previous years, on the monitoring of data by the Ministry of Education. The new parameter takes into account salaries of the academic staff, the teacher-student ratio, and availability and the percentage of international teachers. The parameter “international activities” now assesses the percentage of international students at the university, international internships, and double-degree programmes with international universities.
Moreover, the authors of the ranking have adjusted the parameter for “quality of graduates”. In cooperation with “Avito Career” they sent 127 requests to the largest companies and asked them to answer three questions:
- “Graduates of which universities have you hired in 2019–2020?”
- “Recent (up to 5 years) graduates of which universities have been promoted/ have received a salary increase in 2019–2020?”
- “Graduates of which universities would you like to hire as first priority and who of them do you believe is the most well-trained?”
59 companies with the total number of employees of 4 million people agreed to fill in the questionnaires.
Finally, the authors have changed their approach to the “Forbes factor” metrics, which describe how prestigious the university is. They took into account the presence of the university in the leading international rankings, QS World University Rankings and Times Higher Education, and famous graduates and students. The highest points were given to universities with the highest number of children of Russia's richest business people and nominees of the Forbes’s ranking of young and successful Russians “30 under 30” among its students.
