Bric's Countries in the Webometrics Ranking of World Universities BERSHADSKAYA MARGARITA (RESEARCH UNIVERSITY-HIGHER SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS, MOSCOW), VOZNESENSKAYA YULIA (MODERN UNIVERSITY FOR THE HUMANITIES, MOSCOW) Third ISA Forum of Sociology July 10-14, 2016, Vienna, Austria Session Selection: The Knowledge Society and the Brics: Economic and Social Implications

NUMBER OF RANKED UNIVERSITIES WEB RANKUNG OF WORLD UNIVERSITIES - THE ONLY ONE OF THE GLOBAL RANKINGS OF UNIVERSITIES, STIMULATING THE DEVTLOPMENT OF MASS HIGHER EDUCATION BROAD COVERAGE OF UNIVERSITIES (20 THOUSAND RANKED UNIVERSITIES) OPENS UP THE POSSIBILITY OF COMPREHENSIVE REGULAR ANALYSIS OF NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL SYSTEMS. BEING FOLLOWERS OF MASS EDUCATION, WE REGULARLY PUBLISH THE RESULTS OF THE RATING, COMPARING NATIONAL SYSTEMS OF HIGHER EDUCATION NUMBER OF RANKED UNIVERSITIES 2007-2016

Features of the methodology Methodological framework for the comparative assessment of magnitude of mass higher education is based on a synthesis of the results of countries by the number of national universities included in several thousands of the best world universities. Unlike most authors, considering the performance of the country in top 100, 200, 500, 1000 (N100, N200, N500, N1000), and thereby characterizing the elite education in the country, we determine the number of national universities starting with 2000 best universities in the world and up to 20000. The comparison is made by six main indicators: N2000, N3000, N4000, N5000, N10000, N20000. The assessment of the quality of mass higher education is made on a conditional parameter that indirectly characterizes the quality of mass education in a country / region: the share of ranked universities included in top 5000 (N5000) in the number of ranked universities in top 20 000 (N20000): N5000/N20000

NUMBER OF NATIONAL UNIVERSITIES Starting with January 2012, webometrics ranks 20 000 universities of the world. such scale of studies is presented for the first time The sharp increase in the number of universities being ranked in 2012-2016 revealed the scale of the system of higher education in such countries as India (3rd place in the total number of universities ranked), Mexico, Iran, Poland, Indonesia, Pakistan, Ukraine, Columbia, Philippines (yellow bars) NUMBER OF NATIONAL UNIVERSITIES OF 207 COUNTRIES CONSIDERED IN THESE RANKINGS ONLY 22 COUNTRIES HAVE MORE THAN 200 NATIONAL UNIVERSITIES IN THE TOP 23 900

NUMBER OF NATIONAL UNIVERSITIES Indicator N20000 NUMBER OF NATIONAL UNIVERSITIES 0NLY 20 COUNTRIES HAVE INDICATOR N20000 MORE THAN 200 IN THE TOP FIVE COUNTRIES - FOUR BRIC'S COUNTRIES (BLUE BARS) WITH THE TOTAL NUMBER OF UNIVERSITIES IN THE TOP 20000, EQUAL TO 5408 (27% OF 20000)

Growth of the network activity of universities 2012-2016

Ranking by Areas N5000 N20000 N10000 N4000 Brics: N3000 N2000 the indicator N20000 - at the European level; reduction of other indicators as compared to the level of Asia, America, Europe. N3000 N2000

SIMILAR INDICATORS OF QUALITY OF MASS UNIVERSITIES IN THE REGIONS As we can see, the ratio of the number of Asian, American and European universities in the top 5000 to the their number among 20000 universities varies in the range 22-29%: Asia (1650/7402) – 22% America (1779/6105) – 29% Europe (1422/5511) – 26% In the Brics countries the ratio of number N5000 to N20000 is much less : Bric (961/5530) – 17%

THE MAGNITUDE OF MASS HIGHER EDUCATION IN THE COUNTRIES Country Indicators of magnitude of mass higher education N20000 N10000 N5000 N4000 N3000 N2000 USA 3286 2594 1216 918 667 457 China 2033 1163 440 322 242 152 Russia 1178 402 138 91 47 22 India 1229 369 187 146 85 31 Brazil 1001 320 176 97 56 Japan 982 570 303 252 193 120 France 548 271 166 150 130 99 Mexico 498 107 59 50 34 21 Iran 475 181 109 93 64 26 Germany 447 308 158 121 79 Poland 401 81 73 62 41 Korea 168 102 89 68 5 Indonesia 337 221 65 43 8 Canada 317 177 74 58 49 UK 287 203 142 133 122 108 Ukraine 262 30 24 14 4 Columbia 229 51 11 Italy 219 116 77 67 Spain 214 118 66 55 Pakistan 200 170 19 12 Six indicators for twenty countries with large-scale system of higher education (N20000 more than 200) In each column of the table the best ten indicators are colod THE RESULTS OF THE TOP 20 000 ARE A CLEAR EVIDENCE OF THE MAGNITUDE OF HIGHER EDUCATION IN BRICS COUNTRIES: China, Russia, India, Brazil count total: 27% of universities in the top 20 000 (5440 universities); 22,5% of universities in the top 10 000 (2554 universities); 19% of universities in the top 5000 (941 universities); Composition of ten leading countries in the number of national universities is changing depending on the sampling of the best world universities: China and Brazil are leaders by all major indicators; India is among the top ten countries by five main indicators; Russia is among the top ten countries by four main indicators

The top ten countries by number of national universities in different samples of the best universities in the world Composition of ten leading countries in the number of national universities is changing depending on the sampling of the best world universities: Six countries – the United States, China, Japan, Brazil, France and Germany – are leaders by all major indicators. India and the United Kingdom - by five indicators. Russia and Taiwan - by four indicators. Iran - by three indicators. Mexico, Korea, Italy, Spain - by own indicator. Poland, Canada, Ukraine, Columbia, Pakistan - zero Fig. 4. The top ten countries by number of national universities in different samples of the best universities in the world (number of universities in the country are shown in parentheses)

INDICATORS OF THE QUALITY OF MASS HIGHER EDUCATION The countries with the large-scale system of higher education THE USE OF THE RATIO OF NATIONAL UNIVERSITIES IN THE TOP 5000 AND TOP 20000 AS A CONDITIONAL INDICATOR OF THE QUALITY OF MASS UNIVERSITIES LEADS IN YULY 2014 TO AN UNEXPECTED RESULT - THE UNDOUBTED SUPERIORITY OF CHINA . N5000 /N20000 Among the countries with the large-scale system of higher education China was leading: in July 2014 over 60% of ranked universities of China entered 5000 best universities in the world. BAT THE SHARP INCREASE OF CHINESE UNIVERSITIES IN THE RANKING CAUSED THE DECREASE OF THE INDICFTOR N5000 /N20000 Indicators of quality are even lower in the other BRICS countries, especially in Russia.

RESULTS OF RUSSIAN UNIVERSITIES N2000, N3000, N5000 in 15 rankings 2007-2014 In general, the dynamics is positive, despite the fluctuations in the values from ranking to ranking. The best results are of three rankings: January 2012, July 2012 and January 2013. In the next two rankings - July 2013 and January 2014 - Russian universities after a period of stable improvement of their positions reduced the rates to the average level.

FEDERAL DISTRICTS OF RUSSIA IN THE WORLD EDUCATIONAL SPACE As in previous rankings (2007-2016), universities of different regions of the country (federal districts) are among the best universities of Russia. In the July 2014 ranking, starting with the sample of top 4000, the universities of all seven Federal districts are among the world best universities. DISTRIBUTION OF 119 RUSSIAN UNIVERSITIES BY FEDERAL DISTRICTS IN THE SAMPLE OF TOP 4000 WORLD UNIVERSITIES (JULY 2014) In several previous rankings representation of all districts started with the top 3000.

RESULTS, FORECASTS, CHALLENGES FOR THE FUTURE In 20 thousand of the best universities in the world, about 30% are in the BRIC countries: Based on the scale of higher education systems (indicator N20000) BRICS countries are among the top five countries of the world: 2-4 places (after the USA): China – 2033, India - 1229, Russia - 1178, Brazil – 1001; two BRICS countries (China, Brazil) are among the top ten countries in all six indicators; India is among the top ten in five indicators, Russia - in four. Among the countries with large-scale system of higher education (N20000- more then 1000) only the United States has a relatively high indicator of the quality of mass higher education in January 2016. In China, holding the second position, the quality of mass universities is much lower (22% compared to 37%) . The other BRICS countries have low indicators (Brazil – 18%, India 15%, Russia 12%). Estimates of the magnitude of mass higher education systems adopted for this study include only those universities that are among the best universities in the world. This means that each indicator, in contrast to the educational data statistics, includes qualitative aspect, which naturally increases with decreasing sample of top universities.