First XVHow the Project 5-100

stars are transforming theRussian academy

2 Times Higher Education December 2014

Ambitions are easy: anyone can makea proclamation about what they wantto achieve. Delivering is the hard part.

One year on from our first supplementlooking at the Russian AcademicExcellence Initiative Project 5-100, theRussian Federation has made goodprogress towards its goal of having fiveinstitutions among the world’s top 100universities by 2020. In October,Lomonosov Moscow State Universitybecame the first institution from thecountry to penetrate the Times HigherEducation World University Rankings’top 200, while Novosibirsk StateUniversity jumped straight into the top400 (in the 301-350 band); it was alsoranked 85th in the subject-specificphysical sciences table.

Earlier this month, the THE BRICS &Emerging Economies Rankings 2015offered further good news for theprogramme: seven Russian institutionswere represented, with Moscow Statemaking the top five.

But success for Project 5-100 will notbe measured simply by league tablepositions: the number of internationalfaculty and students are also underexamination, and some Russianinstitutions are making headway in thisarea, too. For example, the Higher Schoolof Economics has increased its inter-national staff body by more than 50 percent in the past year, and St PetersburgPolytechnic University is just threepercentage points from achieving theproject target of 15 per cent of studentshailing from overseas.

There is still plenty to do. However,the universities are backed by significantresources to enable them to achieve muchmore. Russia’s advance in the rankingshas only just begun.

Healthy progress

The desire to have their universitiesrecognised as “world class” hasdriven governments across the worldto pour money and resources into thedevelopment of competitive higher

education and research systems. A globaluniversity ranking is a prized reward.

Given Russia’s historically strongcommitment to education, it was no surprisewhen, in 2012, the country’s president,Vladimir Putin, made it a central policyobjective to move five Russian universitiesinto the top 100 of world university rank-ings by 2020 and to maximise their positionwithin the international research andeducation arena.

The project is targeted not only at achiev-ing world-class status for several leadinguniversities, but also at improving the repu-tation abroad of Russian higher educationas a whole. By the end of this decade, eachparticipant is aiming for a minimum top200 global ranking, as well as enrolling15 per cent of students and at least 10 percent of academic staff from overseas.

Fifteen institutions have been selected forwhat is known as the Russian AcademicExcellence Initiative Project 5-100, withfunding and support focused accordingto several markers:● The development of international

research potential● The recruitment and training of staff,

including international recruitment andprofessional development of Russianstaff abroad

● The recruitment of talented internationalstudents

● Institutional and infrastructural reformsaimed at creating long-term competitiveadvantages for Russian universities.

Specific signs of improvementRankings are not the be-all and end-all ofProject 5-100, but they are an importantindicator. While no Russian institutionsmade the top 200 in last year’s TimesHigher Education World University

Supplement editor Fiona SalvageSub-editors Sarah Bancroft and Rob ParrDesign Dan Sinclair

Produced by TES Global Limited to a brief agreedwith Project 5-100. Paid for by Project 5-100.All editorial content commissioned by TES GlobalLimited.

To give us your feedback or suggest ideas,contact fiona.salvage@tesglobal.comFor sponsorship or advertising opportunities,contact matthew.clancy@tesglobal.com orstephen.yarrall@tesglobal.comTo view this supplement as a digital edition, go towww.timeshighereducation.co.uk/russia2014

Global ranking positionsare among the keyindicators of universityperformance for Project5-100: the threeconsidered best for theprogramme’s purposesare the AcademicRanking of WorldUniversities, the TimesHigher Education WorldUniversity Rankings and

the QS World UniversityRankings.

The THE World Univer-sity Rankings 2014-15were compiled usingdata from ThomsonReuters and listed theworld’s top 400 universi-ties, plus the top 100 insix subject areas. Datafor future editions willbe gathered in-house.

BEncHmaRk ExERciSES

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universities in the top100 global rankings

international facultyand researchers

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PRojEcT 5-1002020 aimS

Project 5-100, PresidentPutin’s brainchild, isstarting to showresults in the globalleague tables,discovers Saša Jankovic

Rankings and only one, LomonosovMoscow State University, made the top 400,this year Moscow State broke into the top200 (joint 196th) and Novosibirsk StateUniversity joined the 301-350 band.

Although Russia cannot yet stake a claimwithin the top 100 in the overarching tables,it is making strides in the subject-specificones. Moscow State takes 66th place inthe engineering and technology rankings;and in 56th is one of three Russianinstitutions, alongside Novosibirsk (joint85th) and the National Research NuclearUniversity MEPhl (95th), previously calledthe Moscow State Engineering PhysicsInstitute, in the physical sciences table.

Michael Fedoruk, Novosibirsk’s rector,

December 2014 Times Higher Education 3

consolidate this lead. In June, The MoscowTimes reported that the Russian governmentwas to split Rb10.2 billion ($220 million)across Project 5-100 participants to helpimprove their standards amid what it called“an ongoing cull of the country’s worstperforming educational institutions”. Intotal, Rb44 billion has been allocated to theprogramme up to 2016, supplementedby the universities’ own funding.

According to Alexei Falaleev, officecoordinator for Project 5-100, the invest-ment continues to be aimed at improvingthe content and quality of Russian univer-sity courses “in compliance with the bestinternational standards”; enhancing thecountry’s research potential through

excluded from Times Higher Education World University Rankings: † for too few publications; * because it is monodisciplinary

becoming a realityRb9 billion

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improved academic and student recruit-ment; and restructuring to “ensure theconcentration of resources on breakthroughprojects while abandoning ineffectiveactivities”.

Continued refinementFor ICEF Monitor, the intelligence resourcefor the international education market, theRussian government’s increased funding forthe Project 5-100 universities is “yet onemore sign of Moscow’s continuing push inboosting the global competitiveness of itshigher education institutions”.

And this financial commitment is crucial,as Phil Baty, editor of the THE Rankings,explains: “Top-quality universities come inmany shapes and sizes, and there is no singlemodel of excellence. But there are someclear pointers for any academic leader orany government serious about buildingworld-class universities.

“First, you need serious money. Signifi-cant financial resources are essential to paythe salaries required to attract and retainleading scholars and to build the facilitiesneeded.” Baty adds: “Second, providing anintimate and intensive teaching environmentfor students – where they can expect to trulyengage with leading academic staff – canreally help.

“Finally, and perhaps most importantly,a world-class university must be genuinelyinternational. It must be a magnet for theplanet’s most talented staff and students,wherever they happen to come from; it mustbring people together from a range ofcultures and backgrounds to tackle sharedglobal challenges; and it must work andthink across national borders.”

One indicator of Russia’s performanceis the THE BRICS & Emerging EconomiesRankings 2015, announced in Moscow on3 December at the inaugural Times HigherEducation BRICS & Emerging EconomiesUniversities Summit. Held in partnershipwith Project 5-100, the summit includedsessions on university leadership, inter-national research collaboration, industryand university cooperation, and the roleof government in supporting globallycompetitive universities to fuel knowledge-and skills-based growth.

The country did well, with sevenrepresentatives in the tables.

ICEF Monitor says: “With so manychanges afoot within the Russian educationsystem, as well as growing interest in bothinternationalisation at home and studyabroad, Russia remains a country ofgrowing opportunity in the field ofinternational education.”

Falaleev agrees, adding: “The keyresult by 2020 will not only be theappearance of several strong universitiesin the country, but also a significantenhancement of the status and reputationof Russian education globally.”

explains that his university’s rise in thetables is in some part the result of betterrecognition of its research output throughthe proper attribution of citations. However,the new backing has helped, too.

“From the start of the government’suniversity support programme, Novosibirskhas managed to consolidate its researchbase and bring its researchers back to theuniversity,” he says.

Impetus in the global raceIn the THE World University Rankings,Russia remains one step ahead of its greatBRICS rivals Brazil and India, as neither hastop 200 representation. Further investmentfrom the Russian government promises to

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4 Times Higher Education December 2014

Collaborate,improvise, succeed

How have the 5-100 universitiesresponded to the challenge you’veset them?When we discussed the short-term goals forthe project in 2012 – when we were figuringout its scope and structure with Russianand international experts – we emphasisedthat for the first one to two years, ourefforts should aim at internationalisingthe universities.

At this stage, internationalisation reallymeant a lot for us. Trends over the past50 years show clear patterns of increasedacademic cooperation: since the mid-1950s,the average size of a research team hasincreased significantly. So, to make thiscooperation more productive, we pursuedthe strategy of going global.

The greatest challenge was to encouragethe universities to move away from theirinsular “vision”, which stressed their devel-opment just within Russia. Given the amaz-ing track record of STEM [science,technology, engineering and mathematics]education in Russia – our students wininternational contests in maths and sciences,enter the most prestigious postgraduateprogrammes in the world’s best universitiesand get advanced jobs in the engineeringsector – our universities have great prospectson the international academic market.

So first, we had to make sure that theuniversities became internationally visible.The example of Novosibirsk State Univer-sity in the latest THE ranking is outstandingin this regard: it is currently in the 301-350group in the overall ranking and 85th in thephysical sciences: just a year ago, it was notlisted in either.

Second, we had to start thinking globallyregarding cooperation in education. All ouruniversities now have programmes forinternational students. Our idea was tocooperate with other universities and launchjoint programmes, and then to start devel-oping new programmes that emphasisemultidisciplinary aspects of the contempo-rary academic sector. Those institutionalisedpartnerships are built with master’s-levelprogrammes in mind. However, under-graduate education is of no less importanceto us – our 5-100 universities develop openonline courses and you can find those onspecial resources on the internet.

Third, we had to provide incentives to

engage in real international academiccollaboration. Universities pursue variousstrategies with regard to that: they openresearch labs and invite internationallyacknowledged faculty, and carry out jointresearch with other universities.

These strategies are absolutely essential forus to excel. And I am glad to say that we areseeing positive changes in our universities.

What is the top priority forProject 5-100 over the next two years?An important trend regarding the creation ofknowledge has emerged. The sheer amountof research necessary to get truly advancedscientific results has increased dramatically.This means that universities have to developstrategies that emphasise long-term thinkingand secure long-term funding. This is abso-lutely necessary if we want our local andinternational partners to take us seriously.So I see that as our first priority.

The name “Project 5-100” refers to thetarget for at least five Russianuniversities to enter the leading globalrankings. What is the target's role?Ranking promotion is not an aim of theproject: university positions in the rankingsare just one of seven key performance indi-cators to track the progress of each institu-tion. We value rankings as a great way toassess “the big picture” of global universitycompetition by analysing masses of rawdata – publication activity, academic reputa-tion, internationalisation indicators – fromhundreds of leading universities. We arehappy to see that Russia’s recent progress inthese rankings has been remarkable, but themain aim of the project is to achieve higher-quality research and education.

What is Project 5-100’s main messageto the global academic community andprospective students?As Charles Darwin put it in On the Origin ofSpecies, in the long history of humankind(and animal kind, too), those who learned tocollaborate and improvise most effectivelyhave prevailed. By this project, we want toprovide opportunities for long-term sustain-able collaboration, so that both Russian andinternational universities – and more impor-tantly, the most brilliant students and faculty– will benefit from it.

Fifteen Russianuniversities havedrawn up plans toput themselves onthe international map.A year into their journeys,Victoria Bentata flagsthem down to see howfar they’ve travelled

Minister of education and science,Dmitry Livanov, outlines his priorities

Heading

December 2014 Times Higher Education 5

In October 2013, Dmitry Livanov,Russia’s minister of education andscience, announced that 15 Russianuniversities had submitted “roadmaps”to Project 5-100, the government initia-

tive designed to catapult at least five of theminto the international university rankings’top 100 by 2020. A year on, we revisit theinstitutions to find out just how far theyhave travelled.

The project has clearly been the catalystfor some positive developments. AsTimothy O’Connor, vice-rector of academicaffairs at Moscow’s National Universityof Science and Technology MISiS (NUSTMISiS), comments: “A profound change ofinstitutional culture…is gradually occurring.As the various stakeholders…have come toaccept the vision and strategic goals of

the 5-100 programme, as well as the road-map initiatives for achieving these aims,a new corporate spirit of engagement andcommitment has begun to emerge.”

Moscow’s dreaming spiresNUST MISiS’ recent achievements areimpressive: in 2013, it founded four newmaterials science laboratories; and in March2014, it merged with Moscow State MiningUniversity, bringing together two of thenation’s strongest scientific pedagogicalinstitutions. It now comprises nine collegeswith four branches, three in Russia and onein Dushanbe (Tajikistan), and offers six newmaster’s courses taught entirely in English.It also boasts an impressive list of partners,with students undergoing training andinternships at top German, US and UK

universities. The quality of its Russianstudent intake has improved and inter-national student and staff numbershave increased.

Meanwhile, its neighbour, the MoscowInstitute of Physics and Technology (MIPT),has made great strides over the past year,winning a Thomson Reuters award forincreasing its scientific publication rate morerapidly than any other Russian university.It has embraced new technology, runningcourses via the Coursera online platformand posting lectures on iTunes, one of thefirst Russian universities to do so. Inter-nationalising at breakneck speed, it hassigned a cooperation agreement with Cern,the European Organisation for NuclearResearch, and entered a joint venture withSamsung: this is developing health control

in the right direction

6 Times Higher Education December 2014

Flame on: Project 5-100 stars on fire in 2014

mobile apps and communication systemsfor tourists and rescuers, as well as cloudcomputing for smart cities. And two of itspostgraduates have set up Russia’s firstatomic force microscope.

Also in the capital, the Higher School ofEconomics (HSE) has had a productive year,increasing its presence on Web of Scienceand Scopus from 920 articles in 2013 to1,314 in the first half of 2014. Its inter­national academic workforce has increasedby more than 50 per cent year on year and ithas founded 10 research laboratories headedby leading overseas scholars. It now offers36 double­degree programmes in collabora­tion with foreign universities and more than500 English­medium courses.

Garnering high praise from a commissionof Fields medallists, HSE’s mathematicsdepartment was rated among the world’stop 100. Its department of management,meanwhile, was included in the Top 10Eduniversal Best Masters Ranking 2013­14for the Eastern Europe region.

Nearby, the National Research NuclearUniversity MEPhI (NRNU MEPhI – previ­ously the Moscow State Engineering PhysicsInstitute) is a highly focused science andengineering research institution boasting sixNobel laureates. It is now at the centre of ahuge nuclear education cluster consisting of11 institutes of higher education and ninespecialised secondary education colleges in12 Russian regions. Its principal competitiveadvantage is its large­scale multipurposecooperation with leading Russian companySC Rosatom, which is implementing numer­ous international projects.

Saintly virtuesIn Russia’s second city, St Petersburg, threeuniversities have grasped the nettle. AtITMO University, which specialises ininformation technology, optical design andengineering, Marianna Chistyakova, projectmanager and head of strategic development,

says: “Since the launch of 5­100, sevenforeign researchers have started work atITMO through the fellowship programme,the number of international specialists is upto 140, with seven in management positions,and a major university rebranding campaignhas been launched. We’ve also opened aEuropean office in Brussels.”

She believes ITMO is attractive tointernational students and staff because ofits double­degree master’s programmes,international research labs and internshipswith ITMO’s partner companies.

St Petersburg Polytechnic University hasalso been busy, signing strategic partnershipagreements in May 2014 with Italy’s MilanPolytechnic University and Spain’s Poly­technic University of Valencia; increasing itspublications output on Scopus and Web ofScience by 50 per cent; and creating severalchairs in areas including molecular biology,economics and physics in collaboration withother higher education institutions, pluscompanies such as Gazprom Transgaz SaintPetersburg and Rosfinmonitoring. Foreignstudents represented 12 per cent of its totalstudent body in 2013­14.

Meanwhile, St Petersburg Electro­technical University has signed an agreementwith IBM to implement joint researchprogrammes in nanotechnology, IT andcognitive technologies. In 2014, English

language master’s programmes in lasermeasurement, bioengineering systems andrehabilitation and prosthetic technologieswere initiated as part of the Tempus project,along with a double­degree master’s inautomation and mechatronics. The univer­sity also hosted the 10th Russian­GermanConference on Biomedical Engineering,focusing on everything from biomaterials,implants and artificial organs to medicalcomputer technologies.

Staunch resultsLobachevsky State University of NizhniNovgorod (UNN) has also been developingadvanced biomedical technologies. Itsoutstanding achievement this year was thecreation of a medical exoskeleton to helppeople with mobility impairments, whichoperates via a device that responds to theuser’s thoughts.

Other big projects this year include creat­ing the supercomputer “Lobachevsky”, oneof the 200 most powerful in the world, andproducing Tectum, a topical haemostaticagent that stops even severe bleeding in30 seconds.

Kazan Federal University has also hada productive year. As of October 2014, 907of its research publications were indexed inthe Web of Science and Scopus databases –almost twice as many as in 2013 and a leveloriginally predicted for 2015­16. Its inter­national student count has increased almost2.5 times to 1,800. In the business domain,in 2013­14 the university signed coopera­tion agreements with leading Russian andinternational companies including Schwabe,Damco, EMC, Cisco, Rohde & Schwarz,Pfizer, Rosneft and Lukoil, as well asRoscosmos, the Russian space agency.

Close by, Samara State AerospaceUniversity has also significantly improvedits position in the Russian and internationalrankings. It came in the top 20 of Russianuniversities as rated by employers and

Diverse environment: for overseas scholars and students open to new ways of doing things, Russia is the place to be

December 2014 Times Higher Education 7

identification of possible environmental andclimate impacts”; and the second will fundwork on the evaluation and improvement ofthe social, economic and emotional well-being of older people.

TPU’s near neighbour, Tomsk StateUniversity, boasts five centres of excellence(it also houses the Centre for the Develop-ment of Science, Technology and Educationin Defence and State Security, but this is

outside Project 5-100’s remit). Its facilitieshave been significantly upgraded, witha biometric (fingerprint) security systeminstalled for safer access.

Not just a leader in education andresearch, TSU is also a recognised centre ofSiberian cultural life: many events tradition-ally held at the university attract local citi-zens and become citywide events. Highlyinnovative, the institution’s scientists areoften inventors, too. In 2013, theycompleted work on a unique invention –prosthetic devices for small joints (fingers,thumbs and toes), made from nanoceramics.

Novosibirsk State University is featuredin the Times Higher Education WorldUniversity Rankings 2014-15 (in the301-350 band) and is 85th in the physical

increased its overseas faculty hugely.Renowned for its international summerschool on space technology and science,a joint project with 14 foreign universities,SSAU also offers a summer school in aero-space engine building, launched in collabo-ration with German and Italian technicaluniversities in 2012.

Further east, Ural Federal University inEkaterinburg has established 66 competencecentres, 12 research laboratories led byleading foreign scientists including Nobellaureate Jean Jouzel, plus the UrFUCambridge Centre, which is designed toraise English language standards. Trainingprofessionals for industry is a key part of itsmission, so the university is working onlarge-scale projects such as the first leanproduction factory in Eastern Europe andAsia, in collaboration with McKinsey; theLaser and Additive Technologies Centre,with Almaz-Antey; and the CyclotronNuclear Medicine Centre, a collaborationwith Russia’s Ministry of Health.

Green, grey and cultural colourIn the heart of Russia, Tomsk PolytechnicUniversity’s staff were busy in the first10 months of 2014, publishing 544 articlesin Scopus and 339 in the Web of Science,increasing their output by around 17 percent on last year. The institution is one ofonly five in Project 5-100 that have won twomega-grants from the Russian governmentfor 2014-16. The first is to support investi-gations into the “Siberian Arctic shelf as asource of greenhouse gases of planetarysignificance: quantification of flows and

There is a system-widedesire – actually, aninvitation – to try newideas and take risks

sciences. It attributes its improvement to theimplementation of its roadmap. So far thisyear it has launched 32 joint laboratories,four “mirror” labs with external (oftenoverseas) partners and 12 facilities incollaboration with world scientific centres,including Cern. These additions have helpedboost the university’s science output to arecord high.

The Far Eastern Federal University’sultra-modern campus, opened in 2012, isthe largest in Russia. It boasts 368 researchlaboratories, excellent student accommoda-tion, sports facilities and a beautiful seafrontpromenade. Two thousand internationalstudents from 35 countries already countamong its 25,000-member student body. Ithas 100 foreign academics on its permanentstaff, with 90 visiting professors. The firstRussian university to offer 10 graduateprogrammes in English in everything frommarine biodiversity to hospitality manage-ment, FEFU has collaborated with institu-tions in the US, Australia, Japan, SouthKorea and China.

Risks and rewardsIn summary, 2014 has been a stellar yearfor the stars of Project 5-100. But what canRussia offer that other places can’t – andwhat is it like to be an overseas academicat a Russian university?

NUST MISiS’ O’Connor says: “There isa sense of urgency about enhancing Russianeducation and science that is quite compel-ling, with unique opportunities for institu-tional growth and, therefore, also personalprofessional development. There is a system-wide desire – actually an invitation – to trynew ideas and take reasonable risks inimproving the quality of Russian educationand science. If one is willing to embracechange and be open to new approaches andmethods for enhancing learning and foster-ing community, then the present Russianeducational scene is made to order.”

Overseas script: foreign students flock to elite 15