Press releases

MINSK, 9 November (BelTA) – For the first time ever, Belarusian State University (BSU) has been included in the prestigious Best Global Universities ranking to become the first Belarusian university featured on the list, BelTA learned from the BSU press service.

The ranking is published by the American agency U.S. News & World Report. BSU is ranked 668th out of the world’s best 1250 schools (with over 30,000 ones operating worldwide) and 301st in Europe. Apart from the main ranking, Belarus’ leading university also occupies the 238th spot among the leading higher educational institutions in the Physics category.

The Best Global Universities ranking has strict selection criteria. It evaluates scientific excellence, publications, citations, and also global and regional research reputation. Out of the 13 criteria evaluated, BSU’s highest score was in the International Collaboration category (22nd in the world). This is due to the fact that BSU’s research is highly integrated with international projects, including experiments at the Large Hadron Collider, which involve scientists of the BSU Institute for Nuclear Problems and the Physics Department.

This year, American universities sweep the podium: Harvard University is first, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is second, Stanford University is third. The best European schools are the University of Oxford (5), the University of Cambridge (7), and King's College London (17). Lomonosov Moscow State University is named the best of Russia’s 15 universities featured in the ranking (267). Taras Shevchenko National University of Kiev is the only Ukrainian school included on the list (1029).

Belarusian State University occupies high positions in many reputable international rankings (QS, THE, Webometrics, SIR, U-Multitrank, and others) and regularly makes it to the top 1 or 2% of the world’s best universities. For instance, it placed 334th in QS World University Rankings 2017/18. In 2017, the university was ranked 401-500 (Physics category) in the 2017 Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU), one of the oldest and most prestigious university rankings. That was the first time a Belarusian university was included in the ARWU. Belarusian State University remains the only Belarusian higher education institution included in the high-status British ranking THE (Times Higher Education).