Originally out of Moscow, the independent RUR Rankings Agency, founded in 2013, has been based in Tbilisi, Georgia, for a few years now. RUR publishes four annual global university rankings: an overall world university ranking, a six-part subject ranking plus a reputation ranking and an academic (research performance) ranking. The goal of Round University Ranking (RUR) is to provide a comprehensive ranking system, accessible and pertinent to all groups for whom this could be of interest: students, parents, analysts, HEIs, employers… etc.
Out of the 1200+ universities considered by the RUR World Universities Ranking, just over 1100 are included in the list. To participate in the RUR rankings, universities must request inclusion and send their raw data to Clarivate Analytics as part of their Global Institutional Profiles Project (GIPP).
Key facts about the ranking
- Publisher: RUR Ranking Agency (Moscow, Russia), Russia
- Latest ranking publication date: 30 May, 2024
- Publication frequency: Annual
- Geographic focus: Global
- Ranking type: University rankings.
- Year of first publication: 2013
- 1165 universities in ranking
Ranking table 2024 RUR World University Rankings
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- #28
- Fudan University
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- #31
- Emory University
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- #42
- Tufts University
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- #43
- Brown University
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- #55
- Lund University
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- #73
- Kyoto University
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- #87
- Southeast University (China)
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- #102
- Osaka University
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- #110
- Tulane University
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- #114
- Nankai University
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- #120
- University of Twente
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- #126
- University of Kansas
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- #129
- Tel Aviv University
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- #133
- University of Utah
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- #134
- Hokkaido University
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- #138
- Dalhousie University
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- #142
- Aalto University
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- #145
- Ghent University
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- #150
- University of Bergen
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- #153
- Sichuan University
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- #154
- Koc University
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- #155
- Yonsei University
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- #156
- University of Malaya
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- #158
- Nagoya University
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- #163
- University of Ottawa
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- #165
- Hanyang University
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- #167
- University of Tehran
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- #168
- Wuhan University
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- #178
- Rice University
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- #180
- University of Macau
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- #181
- University of Iowa
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- #183
- Drexel University
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- #187
- Laval University
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- #189
- Islamic Azad University
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- #191
- Beihang University
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- #195
- Lancaster University
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- #197
- University of Padua
What is really measured and how? - Methodology DeepDive
RUR focuses on 4 main criteria for their university ranking: teaching, research, international diversity and financial sustainability which are calculated using 20 indicators. Teaching and research are the main focus and make up 80% of all of the indicators used in the ranking, divided evenly across the two items.
The teaching quality of universities is gauged according to the faculty to student ratio, the faculty to the quantity of degrees granted at different levels (how many students make it all the way to the end of their degree) and the institution’s global teaching reputation. This last item is based on an Academic Reputation Survey performed yearly by Clarivate Analytics. That survey is also the data source for the other two instances where reputation is a criteria.
The research section of the data is mostly bibliometric/scientometric and considers the publications and citations of the institution’s staff, but also takes into consideration the number of post-graduate students who present their thesis, and their overall graduation rate plus the uni’s global research reputation.
International diversity criteria bases its relevance on the view that the capacity of a university to attract staff (and students) from outside of their region/country positively affects the quality of education provided at the university. The criteria used by RUR also takes into account international collaboration on publications and the institution’s reputation beyond their regional influence.
Without the means to finance their endeavors, pay staff, buy equipment, stock libraries, etc, no institution can consistently provide high quality education to its students. This is why financial matters enter into the evaluation process as a small portion of the overall ranking criteria.
The ranking by fields follows the same methodology as the overall world ranking with a tiny adjustment in the research criteria: Where the general ranking considers the percentage of students studying at a post-bachelor level, the subject rankings uses the percentage of doctoral students who complete and receive their degrees.
- Types of Data Collected Directly by the Publisher
- -
- External databases/data providers used
Clarivate Analytics Web of Science Core Collection Scopus Google Scholar
- Criteria for including/excluding universities
must request to be included
- Criteria Classification
- 40% Academic Performance
- 50% Teaching/International Diversity
- 10% Other (financial sustainability)
- Research publications and citations
- Academic reputation - survey or other
- Student Survey
- Internationalization (% of foreign staff/students/exchange)
- Employer reputation survey or Salary data
Our take - How useful is the ranking for students?
- Rating
- 3.5 / 5.0
- Popularity
- Google results for: RUR "World University Ranking": 31500
- PROS
- transparent, easy to understand, view and filter
- reasonable size, doesn’t overwhelm
- CONS
- all data from one source (though they interpret that data according to their own established criteria)
- Practical use
This ranking doesn’t generally have any major surprises but the criteria is well-rounded and clearly defined. It is super easy to sift through the results according to the 4 different criteria and country or regions. Something I particularly like about RUR rankings is that, unlike other rankings, they don’t require you to load and reload the data (and reload, and reload, ad aeternam) to view the entire list. Also, the page isn’t cluttered by the data itself or constant ads.
- Criticism
Creating a ranking that is useful to people from all sectors of society with any relation to post-secondary education is a big task. Interestingly, one of the criticisms about this ranking is that it has not received much attention from the global community despite the fact that it includes information which many other rankings do not, and the RUR rankings have been lauded for being more transparent, easy to interpret and more comprehensive than some of the other big name rankings.
One thing of note is that the data used to evaluate the universities is approximately 3-5 years old. In theory, this shouldn’t make much difference to the average user, but it might be important to some.
Cora Lee Paddock, UniversityGuru: 20 August, 2024