Constructing National Ranking Methodology : Dilemmas, Choices, and Decisions

One of the current trends of the Russian Higher Education is strengthening participation of HEIs in global higher education. The increasing number of approaches to universities rankings reflects this trend. International and Russian rankings draw close attention and criticism from academic and expert community. Despite the criticism, rankings outcomes are in demand and influence universities' promotion and their positioning in the global higher education area. Contemporary Russian rankings systems are diverse and strive to satisfy needs of various stakeholders. However, all these approaches are single dimensional rankings that use a composite indicator and weight coefficients. The presented article describes development of a multidimensional ranking system in Russia. This work has been done in the framework of the project “Developing and Approbating a Template Methodology for National Ranking of Higher Education Institutions” implemented by NTF (2011 – 2013). The authors demonstrate deficiency of league tables; prove relevancy of a chosen approach as it considers complexity and differentiation of the Russian Higher Education system, its current modernization, missions and diversity of the Russian HEIs. Drawn on the project outcomes, the authors present development of the national multidimensional ranking methodology: its concept, choice of indicators, the approbation outcomes, dilemmas and decisions