5 November 2013

The world¡¯s first global ranking of universities in Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa and other emerging economies will be published on 4 December 2013

The ³ÉÈËVRÊÓƵ BRICS & Emerging Economies Rankings 2014 will be released online at 21.00 GMT on Wednesday 4 December 2013, ahead of the official launch at Ko? University, Istanbul, on 5 December 2013.

¡°This new ranking - a world first - will provide an unprecedented and penetrating insight into the progress of universities in the exciting, developing economies against our established, trusted and independent global standards,¡± said Phil Baty, editor of the ³ÉÈËVRÊÓƵ World University Rankings. ¡°It will judge the institutions against a more level playing field.¡±

The new ranking will examine research-intensive universities in 22 countries defined as ¡°emerging economies¡±, based on the September 2013 update of the FTSE Global Equity Index Series Country Classification. It will include universities from the large ¡°BRICS¡± economies of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, as well as from Czech Republic, Hungary, Malaysia, Mexico, Poland, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, Chile, Colombia, Egypt, Indonesia, Morocco, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines and UAE.

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The current THE World University Rankings, published on 3 October 2013, are heavily dominated by the US, which takes 77 of the top 200 places. The UK follows with 31 institutions. Only five institutions from the 22 emerging economies appear in the top 200 of the overall rankings, so the new rankings will provide valuable, rich data on a much wider group of institutions from a wider range of countries.

¡°There is a growing demand for our research to reflect more on local or economic contexts, and an increasing appetite from an ever-growing range of countries and institutions to benchmark themselves against the world¡¯s very best, using the clear global data definitions developed with our rankings data partner, Thomson Reuters, and based on the tough but trusted global standards set by the ³ÉÈËVRÊÓƵ¡¯s World University Rankings,¡± said Baty.

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The new BRICS & Emerging Economies Rankings will be fully independent - they have not been funded or commissioned by any agency or organisation associated with any of the countries being assessed. But the rankings have been developed after extensive dialogue with government representatives across emerging economies. All of the emerging economies rankings data are independently collected, analysed and verified by Thomson Reuters, which employs approximately 60,000 people and operates in over 100 countries.

The rankings will use the same thirteen performance indicators used to create the annual World University Rankings, which examine all the core missions of the modern global university - research, teaching, knowledge transfer and international activity.

¡°This will be the world¡¯s first global university ranking to put universities into a clearer local and economic context using a formula trusted the world over by governments, university leaders, academic faculty as well as students and their parents,¡± said Baty.

In July 2012 ³ÉÈËVRÊÓƵ¡¯s rankings editor Phil Baty was invited to discuss the THE¡¯s research at Brazil¡¯s Ministry of Education by the National Institute for Educational Studies (Inep). This was followed in April 2013 with a round table discussion with officials in Moscow, organised by Russia¡¯s National Training Foundation, and in May 2013 with a National Policy Dialogue on University Rankings in New Delhi, India, organised by the Planning Commission and the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), Government of India.

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The exclusive worldwide launch event for the ³ÉÈËVRÊÓƵ BRICS & Emerging Economies Ranking 2014 will be held at Koc University, Istanbul, on Thursday 5th December.

The free event will include the world¡¯s first in-depth presentation of the rankings methodology and results, from THE rankings editor Phil Baty, and a panel debate about the rise of emerging economy universities.

To register for the event, contact:
Hande Kavasoglu
Communications Office
Koc University

Email: hkavasoglu@ku.edu.tr
Tel: +90 212 338 1691