MSU entered the top 20 best universities in the global ranking

Harvard University regained first place in the global ranking of universities “Three University Missions”. It has topped the ranking since it began compiling it in 2017, ceding leadership in 2024 and 2025 to Massachusetts University of Technology (MIT). In this year’s ranking, MIT dropped to second place. Following are British universities - Oxford and Cambridge. The fifth place was taken by the American Stanford University (included in Russia in the register of undesirable organizations). No new participants in the top twenty appeared, the press service of RAEX reported.

Lomonosov Moscow State University in the ranking of this year retained the 17th place.

The leaders in the representation of universities in the top twenty were the United States — American universities took 11 places. The second largest were the universities of Great Britain, which took five lines of the rating. The top 20 also included two Swiss universities, one Japanese (University of Tokyo) and one Russian university.

In total, the global ranking includes 2,000 universities. The leaders in the number of educational institutions in the overall ranking were also the United States - 261 universities, in second place - China (258). The number of Russian universities decreased by five to 151.

In the top 100, in addition to MSU, included SPBU (48th place) and MIPT (63rd place). In the second hundred list are located HSE (143rd place) and MEPhI (184th place). Only two universities from the top 300 list were able to improve their positions: Novosibirsk State University rose by five positions (from 238th to 233rd place), and Bauman Moscow State Technical University advanced by three points, taking the 287th place.

Dmitry Grishankov, Head of the Association of Ranking Compilers, Advisor to the President of the Russian Union of Rectors, noted that BRICS universities are gradually increasing their presence in the ranking of the best universities in the world: BRICS universities are progressively reducing the gap from universities in Europe and North America. Two years ago, in terms of the specific size of the research budget, universities in the global South on average lagged behind the results of universities in the global North by 17%. In the latest issue of the study, the gap has almost completely bridged – today the difference is only 3%.”.

The Moscow International University Ranking “Three University Missions” assesses three key missions of the university: education, science and interaction with society. The pilot version was published in December 2017.

The formation of the rating was initiated by the Russian Union of Rectors in accordance with the instructions of President Vladimir Putin. The rating operator is the Association of Compilers of Ratings, Rankings and Other Performance Assessments (ACP), whose members are leading rating and research centers.

In the ranking of the best universities in the world from QS World University Rankings 2027, Lomonosov Moscow State University occupies 115th out of 1504 places. The leader of the rating was the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and the second line is shared by Imperial College London and Stanford University.

In June 2026, RAEX presented an annual ranking of the 100 best universities in Russia. The five leaders have not changed over the past three years, and Lomonosov Moscow State University remained the best university, which has held the leadership since 2012. In the second and third places were two technical universities: Bauman MSTU and MIPT.

In December 2025, the Association of Ranking Writers prepared a ranking of BRICS universities. The first place was taken by Peking University, and in the second and third places are Lomonosov Moscow State University and St. Petersburg. Among Russian universities in the top 100 included 20 educational institutions. For example, MIPT took the sixth place, and HSE was located in the eighth.