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About RUR Agency

The RUR ranking agency exists since 2013 and publishes international rankings system of universities Round University Ranking (RUR). Raw data for the RUR Rankings system is provided by an international company Clarivate Analytics (formerly the IP&Science business of Thomson Reuters). The Agency also offers consulting services for universities to strengthen their competitiveness in the higher education sector. The RUR Agency is based in Moscow, Russian Federation.

About RUR rankings system

RUR international rankings system includes 37 rankings: overall ranking, 4 dimension areas rankings, 6 subject rankings, 24 subject rankings by dimension areas and 2 additional rankings which measure separate activities of universities. The system covers the period from 2010 to the present.

Over the 7 years 850 world's leading universities from 80 countries took part in the RUR rankings system and their performance was evaluated by 20 indicators and 4 dimension areas: teaching, research, internationalization, financial sustainability and by 6 subject areas: humanities, life sciences, natural sciences, technical sciences, social sciences, medical sciences.

RUR rankings system is designed as an evaluation system aimed to provide sufficient information about universities' performance to address stakeholder's personal tasks: students, academic community, university management, policy makers. s.

RUR Rankings System data

All the raw data (as number of students, academic staff etc.) is provided by an international company Clarivate Analytics (formerly the IP&Science business of Thomson Reuters) through a special data survey called Global Institutional Profiles Project (GIPP). This survey is conducted annually in spring and covers around 850 world higher education institutions with the prospective expansion by 1000+.

Three types of the raw data are used in the RUR rankings system:

  1. Statistical data
    • • Universities provide information on 20 indicators themselves through the GIPP project, which are further used to generate 100 scaled indicators (ratio between 2 values) 20 of which are used in the RUR rankings system.
  2. Bibliomteric data
    • • For bibliometric/scientometrics information RUR rankings system uses the raw data extracted from the Web of Science Core Collection.
  3. Reputation data
    • • As a part of Global Institutional Profiles Project a special Academic Reputation Survey is conducted annually. Each reputation survey includes around 60,000 responses from 10,000 respondents which present all dimensions of global academic community.
More about RUR Rankings System

RUR international rankings system includes 37 rankings: overall ranking, 4 dimension areas rankings, 6 subject rankings, 24 subject rankings by dimension areas and 2 additional rankings which measure separate activities of universities. The system covers the period from 2010 to the present.

1. RUR World University Ranking

An overall university ranking which measures performance of world universities by 20 unique indicators and 4 dimension areas: teaching, research, international diversity, financial sustainability.


Teaching indicators
Research indicators
Academic staff per students Citations per academic and research staff
Academic staff per bachelor degrees awarded Doctoral degrees awarded per admitted PhD
Doctoral degrees awarded per academic staff Normalized citation impact
Doctoral degrees awarded per bachelor degrees awarded Papers per academic and research staff
World teaching reputation World research reputation
International Diversity indicators
Financial Sustainability indicators
Share of international academic staff Institutional income per academic staff
Share of international students Institutional income per students
Share of international co-authored papers Papers per research income
Reputation outside region Research income per academic and research staff
International level Research income per institutional income

2. RUR Dimension Areas Rankings

Four separate rankings by each dimension area are based on the same 5 indicators as the eponymous group in the Overall Ranking. The difference lies in the weight distribution which is 20% for each indicator against 8% or 2% in the overall ranking:


  • • Teaching Ranking;
  • • Research Ranking;
  • • International Diversity Ranking;
  • • Financial Sustainability Ranking.
3. RUR Subject Rankings

The methodology of subject rankings is identical to the methodology of the overall ranking. The same 20 indicators grouped in 4 dimension areas are used, however the raw data which is used for the rankings differentiate. For the subject rankings, the relevant subject areas data provided by universities through the GIPP project by Clarivate Analytics (formerly the IP&Science business of Thomson Reuters) is used.


  • • Humanities;
  • • Life Sciences;
  • • Natural Sciences
  • • Technical Sciences;
  • • Social Sciences;
  • • Medical Sciences.
4. Subject rankings by dimension areas

The system counts 24 rankings: 4 dimension areas rankings within each of the 6 subject areas. The methodology of these rankings is the same as the overall ranking. Only the sample of raw data is different as it solely uses the data which is relative to the subject areas provided by universities through the Global Institutional Profiles Project (GIPP) by Clarivate Analytics (formerly the IP&Science business of Thomson Reuters).


RUR Subject Area
RUR Dimension Area
Humanities
  Teaching
 Research
 International Diversity
 Financial Sustainability
Life Sciences
  Teaching
 Research
 International Diversity
 Financial Sustainability
Medical Sciences
  Teaching
 Research
 International Diversity
 Financial Sustainability
Natural Sciences
  Teaching
 Research
 International Diversity
 Financial Sustainability
Social Sciences
  Teaching
 Research
 International Diversity
 Financial Sustainability
Technical Sciences
  Teaching
 Research
 International Diversity
 Financial Sustainability
Humanities
  Teaching
 Research
 International Diversity
 Financial Sustainability

5. Additional Rankings

Additional rankings measure separate universities’ activities that are narrower than the standard measurement of the RUR rankings system. There are two additional rankings:

1.
RUR Reputation ranking - aimed to measure university's brand and influence of a particular institution globally. This ranking assess institutions by two indicators (teaching and research reputation) with the same weight of 50% per each indicator.


2.
RUR Research Performance Ranking - evaluates institution’s performance in terms of its scientific effectiveness, quality and recognition of researches conducted in certain university. The selection of scientometric indicators, some of which coincide with RUR Research ranking metrics, is used in this ranking.

  • • Normalized citation impact;
  • • Citation per papers;
  • • Papers per academic and research staff;
  • • Research reputation;
  • • International co-authored papers.
Key features of the RUR rankings system
1.
Authoritative data source – Global Institutional Profiles Project from an international company Clarivate Analytics (formerly the IP&Science business of Thomson Reuters) is one of the world's most influential sources of information on higher education institutions.


2.
Balanced methodology - compared to other rankings, RUR rankings system demonstrates reduced weights: 10 indicators of “Teaching” and “Research” groups get 8% each (40% for each group of indicators) and 10 indicators of “Internationalization” and “Financial stability” groups get 2%.



3.
Comprehensive analysis - advanced metrics measure the activities of universities by 20 indicators.

4.
Informativity– the RUR rankings system contains detailed information for all universities which includes rank/score for each of the 20 indicators and separately for 4 areas of measurement.


5.
Inclusivity - any university in the world can participate in the ranking.