1. What’s the reason behind doing a BRICS University Rankings, when you already have an existing set of rankings for Universities at your end?
Pretty simple – I honestly think that educational systems of the emerging markets are strong, but hard to compare with the US or the UK systems / budgets / progress level. I’ve been to dozens, if not hundreds, of universities in Russia, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, etc and at pretty much each one of them there was something what could make them famous. However because the educational systems for a very long time were supported by state and didn’t have to operate on a competitive market the Universities have no idea how to highlight that these countries are also great as research and study destinations. Comparing likes for likes will hopefully allow us to shed light on the emerging markets and raise interest to the institutions from BRICS.
2. It seems that you are fitting an obvious data requirement into an existing product at your end.
Not really – for the pilot we’ve looked into over 30 indicators which were publicly collected and discussed by the Russian universities. However as an international ranking company it is our responsibility to make sure that we only use accurate and validated data, so some criteria like “Revenue of the spin-off companies” couldn’t be used as such information is not publicly available for confirmation. Of course, we trust the universities when they submit their data, but some errors might occur plus we also use third-party data to ensure objectivity. The indicators we’ve suggested to the QS Advisory Board were in line with our established practice, though we might still have some challenges confirming accurate number of faculty members with PhD degree for some Indian and Chinese universities.
3. What are the key indicators in this ranking that, you feel, University stakeholders should refer to (once it is released)?
I think academic reputation and collaboration with employers are two indicators which should be studied carefully. Academic reputation is a complex one, it is linked with other indicators – such as research productivity and quality of this research which is reflected in Scopus, as well as international collaborations, co-authorhips, activity of the university staff at the international events, etc. Employer reputation is the market – or customer if you wish – voice, telling the universities about the quality of their “product”, their graduates. Which, in fact, is also linked with the teaching quality and thus is a proxy for “Student per faculty ratio” indicator.
4. Who else could use this ranking system other than the Universities?
As for every QS ranking, it is not that much for the universities, it is for the young professionals who want to plan their future career and want to know what else is out there, beyond their home country. Employers, state officials, media and other users of the rankings are also quite important, but I’d say candidates are the main focus.