A version of the pilot ranking of BRICS universities, developed on behalf of the President of Russia, was presented on the sidelines of the Russian Rectors’ Forum, held on October 17–18.
Of the 825 universities proposed in the shortlist, 600 higher education institutions from ten Commonwealth countries were included in the final list: Brazil, Egypt, India, Iran, China, the United Arab Emirates, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Ethiopia and South Africa. These are universities that occupy leading positions in global academic rankings or are leaders in national rankings.
The leaders of the BRICS university rankings were Peking University (1st place), Lomonosov Moscow State University (2nd place) and Tsinghua University (3rd place). 207 universities (34.5%) are located in China, 161 (26.8%) in Russia, 93 (15.5%) in India, 55 (9.2%) in Brazil, 27 (4.5%); the rest of the countries are represented by less than 20 universities each, their combined share is 9.5%.