Implementation of Russian Universities’ Strategies in the Context of International Academic Rankings1

The article considers the implementation of strategies for the integration of Russian universities into the system of world academic rankings. The relevance of this work is dictated by the active introduction of Russian universities into the world market of educational services and the modernization of Russian higher education and science in the context of the globalization of these social institutions. For the effective integration of Russian universities into the global educational space, it is necessary to carry out a consistent modernization of both managerial and educational processes, as well as the infrastructure of universities and existing educational programs and standards. One of the aspects of introducing world educational standards into the practice of Russian higher education is the participation of Russian universities in world academic rankings. For the consistent and systematic promotion of the positions of Russian universities in world academic rankings, with the support of the Government of the Russian Federation and the Ministry of Science and Higher Education, national projects were developed to support leading Russian higher education institutions, programs to support innovative development and modernization, and individual roadmaps were drawn up. Development of universities, which allowed them to create their own development strategies and inclusion in the international educational market. The purpose of this article is to consider various aspects of the implementation of the strategies of Russian universities for inclusion in the world academic rankings and systematization of the results achieved so far. The work uses the methods of statistical, comprehensive and comparative analysis in relation to development strategies, roadmaps of Russian universities, as well as to the published results of their promotion in the system of international academic rankings. The result of this work was the derivation of general trends and patterns of development of Russian universities in the context of world academic rankings and the systematization of a set of measures aimed at their further systematic advancement. The positive and negative aspects of the participation of Russian universities in the system of world academic rankings, as well as the influence of the global system for assessing education and science on the Russian sphere of higher education, are analytically derived.


Introduction
In contemporary conditions of globalization, higher education, as one of the public institutions, is also forced to change, adapting to the latest social demands. The changes taking place in the higher education system are primarily due to the influence of the processes of globalization and migration as the main trends of modern society. The trend of globalization generates such a phenomenon as world rankings, existing and entrenched not only in the business environment, but also in the higher education system. The features of the ranking of higher education institutions are based on a special way of assessing the quality and effectiveness of both education and the administrative system of universities around the world. It is aspects such as quality and efficiency that have become the main criteria for evaluating higher education institutions around the world [1]. Rating systems in general allow for a criterion assessment of both the industry as a whole and a specific institution included in the considered field (education, business, healthcare, etc.). The main method of evaluation is the rating as a tool that allows to conduct a comparative assessment of an organization in comparison with other agents in this field according to predefined criteria with the involvement of ranking, i.e. assigning values to organizations in the list that reflect the quality of the criterion being evaluated. Several interrelated criteria become the basis for the methodology of all world rating systems for higher education institutions: the quality of education, scientific activity and publication activity, and academic reputation [2]. The quality of education is understood as the totality of the effectiveness of the educational process and the adequacy of the knowledge received by graduates to the real market, i.e. the organization of the educational process and the demand for graduates in the labor market, which allows us to evaluate the educational aspect of the university. Scientific activity and publication activity allows us to assess the scientific potential of a higher educational institution and the contingent of the teaching staff: among other things, a modern university is a scientific organization engaged in research in its field, and professors must maintain their level of competence by conducting research. In the light of all the above, the third main criterion is academic reputation, which is a set of ideas about an educational institution from interested parties, which are colleagues from other universities, former graduates, potential applicants and potential employers of graduates of this University (by region). This evaluation methodology, with cumulative additions, serves as the basis for evaluation for such world ranking systems as QS World Universities Ranking, Times Higher Education World University Ranking and Academic Ranking of Worlds Universities [3].

Positive Aspects of Participation in International Rankings for the Development of Russian Universities
One of the positive aspects of the participation of Russian universities in the world rankings is the opportunity to bring Russian universities to the world educational market. As a result of globalization, the educational services market has begun to expand due to the opportunity to provide educational services to citizens of different states. Considering this, Universities that are able to provide high-quality education in a certain industry are becoming the most popular among foreign students. According to A.R. Kuznetsova and V.Yu. Ledeneva, as well as the migration policy plan of Russian Federation until 2025, educational migration to Russian universities is of interest mainly for residents of the CIS countries, Southeast Asia and the North African region. Whereas the countries of central and western Europe, as well as Central and North America, are of interest to Russian students in the framework of educational migration [4].
International rankings can provide applicants and potential students with an analytical reference in a comparative aspect regarding the specializations of world Universities and comparative aspects of the quality of education in them. Thus, the choice of a University for potential applicants from all over the world becomes more deliberate, for Universities it is a way to demonstrate the competitiveness of their own educational programs and attract more students from all over the world (both external and internal) [5].
In addition to the benefits for potential applicants and students who are transitioning subjects of educational activity, rating systems can be useful as sources of information for potential employees -administrative and managerial, faculty and scientific and pedagogical staff who consider the university within the framework of building an individual career and scientific trajectory. The availability of information about the scientific activities of the University, the teaching staff of the university departments, as well as the general academic reputation can help a potential employee to choose the University that best suits his request, and universities can choose the most suitable employees for the strategic development goals, evaluating them using the analysis of scientometric indicators of the previous place of work. At the same time, additional prospects open for universities as potential employers in the form of an assessment of the quality of education of graduates from universities of a related specialty. Thus, universities will be able to estimate the approximate level of training of graduates of various educational institutions. Among other things, the sites of world rankings can allow to "bring together" employers in the form of organizations providing jobs and universities as suppliers of qualified personnel. At such sites, universities will be able to assess the prospects of the market and update the list of training programs for which specialists will be in demand in the labor market, and potential employers will be able to assess the prospects for hiring graduates of specific universities in relation to the specifics of their educational and methodological training programs [6].
The fact of promotion in the ratings remains extremely relevant for the Russian education system. Taking higher positions and promotion in the rankings will allow not only to promote existing educational products in the educational market, but also to attract more highly qualified specialists in the fields, as well as gifted students from all over the world to the university. As this cyclical system operates, according to the rating organizers, universities will constantly improve their own training programs and update the system of taught knowledge in accordance with the latest educational trends. Attracting new specialists will entail structural changes in educational programs that will allow you to rise higher in the rankings, which, in turn, will make the university more attractive to potential employees and students.
In turn, in the intra-university environment, the development of a rating system can become a factor in encouraging positive competition, when universities will strive to improve the quality of existing educational programs, implement new scientific and educational programs, offer new educational products and intensify scientific processes. In addition, the emerging positive competition should spur the formation of collaborations between various universities of related or complementary areas, between universities and industries, various organizations of the labor market, as well as between universities and research organizations in the framework of the exchange of specialists and the creation of joint programs.
The orientation of the world rankings not only on the educational process, but also on the scientific achievements of universities will help Russian institutions of higher education to intensify research activities, as well as to establish a mechanism for attracting leading and young scientists by both attracting new personnel and by activating training programs for highly qualified personnel (postgraduate, doctoral, postdoctoral). In the Russian educational market, this trend is manifested in an increase in demand for highly qualified personnel training programs, an increase in demand at the institute for academic degree, the reorganization of postgraduate studies as the third stage of higher education, the introduction of a new procedure for the defense of candidate and doctoral dissertations in the format of a scientific report for leading experts in the industry, as well as the emergence and development of the postdoctoral format at the scientific-research institutes and graduate departments. The combination of these measures allows Russian universities to attract young and promising scientists as scientific, pedagogical and teaching staff and to provide themselves with a system of internal provision of highly qualified personnel.
In addition, participation in international rankings is provided for in the national project "Science and Universities". According to the plan for the development of Russian science and the reorganization of the higher education system in the period up to 2024, Russian universities should ensure their presence on the world stage, bringing national universities into the top 5 countries of the world in priority scientific and technological fields, attracting the maximum number of leading world and young scientists to scientific and educational centers, which become leading universities countries, as well as to increase the plan of domestic expenditures on scientific and technological research and development in relation to the country's GDP (National Projects 2019).

Current Trends in Russian Education in Connection with Participation in International Rankings
As the main trends of Russian education related to the entry of Russian universities into the world rankings, the following should be noted: consolidation of scientific and educational centers, creation of national universities and federal universities; creation of growth points and consolidation of small institutes into university systems and branches; integration of universities into international database systems (Web of Science -Science Network, Scopus, etc.); creation of centralized systems for accounting the effectiveness of scientific personnel; expansion of academic mobility programs for students, faculty, and scientific and pedagogical staff; activation of student science and self-government; reorganization of university strategies within the framework of creating an educational environment; implementation of modular and campus training programs, implementation of individual educational trajectories [7].
The first trend -the consolidation of research centers and the creation of a network of national and federal universities -is associated with the peculiarities of the methodology of rating assessment. So, the system of evaluation of universities, especially the Academic Ranking of World Universities. It is aimed at evaluating large universities with an established history and academic reputation. Thus, an important criterion for evaluating universities is the assessment of its educational infrastructure, the number of graduates and students, as well as the level of staff involved. The Shanghai Ranking (ARWU) takes into account the number of Nobel laureates and Fields Prize laureates in the scientific and pedagogical and teaching staff, as well as in the graduates of the university, which only major world educational institutions with the highest level of education can boast of. At the same time, as employees or invited lecturers, scientists-laureates of these prestigious awards will participate only in scientific or educational projects of the appropriate level, they will also need the appropriate infrastructure, technical and technological support, the possibility of attracting funding, etc. The rating also takes into account the amount of funding attracted by the university from other scientific, technical, scientific and educational organizations and from industrial organizations. Accordingly, it is easier for large scientific and educational organizations to fulfill all these requirements, while small institutes and universities cannot achieve the same level due to a lower level of their own capacities, needs and opportunities, including a limited range of educational services. The trend towards the consolidation of educational organizations and the unification of institutes and research institutes under the unified auspices of universities is actively supported by the national project "Science and Universities", operating from 2014 to 2024, under which 23 Russian universities have received the status of national universities, and 10 more educational institutions have received the status of federal universities. In addition, the concept of consortia -collaborations of research organizations, universities and subjects of real sectors of the economy is actively developing in the university environment [8].
The next trend -the creation of growth points -is directly related to the previous described trend. The third trend is the integration of universities into international databases, linked to the system of accounting and evaluation of publication activity by international rating systems in the field of education. So, the rating of THE recently focused in its assessment mainly on publications indexed by the Web of Science, since their assessment is carried out by Thomson Reuters using the Clarivate Analytics module. Whereas the QS Universities Ranking system previously based its assessment on the analysis of the publication activity of the Scopus database, analyzed using the Elsevier module [10]. Relatively recently (in 2019), both rankings revised their methodology and began to consider the publication activity of scientists according to both databases. However, the program of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation "5-100" has set requirements for leading universities to enter periodical indexed publications created and functioning on the basis of university divisions in WoS and Scopus. Thus, according to analytics, due to following these programs, the share of Russian articles in the Scopus and WoS has been steadily growing since 2003 ( Fig. 1-3).
The third trend -an increase in the mobility of student and scientificpedagogical personnel, as well as representatives of the teaching staffis directly related to previous trends. The creation of international scientific collaborations, cooperation with the world's leading universities in priority areas of science and technology development allows, first of all, to adopt the world practices of conducting scientific research and the peculiarities of the organization of the educational process, but also to attract external funding to Russian universities and increase the recognition of Russian universities in the world educational arena and create a positive academic reputation as a whole of Russian education as well as individual universities of the country in various subject areas [11].   Figure 4 shows the dynamics of the promotion of Russian universities in the world rankings and their objective assessment by the number of students, the level of research activity and the age of the university over the past 10 years in the period from 2011 to 2021. At the same time, it can be noted that many of the universities included in this list are newly enlarged federal and national universities, such as the National Research Tomsk University or Kazan (Volga Region) Federal University, which indicates the effectiveness of the ongoing national project "Science and Universities". In addition to them, the list also includes the largest and most famous Russian universities with a unique history, including Lomonosov Moscow State University and RUDN.

Dynamics of Positions of Russian Universities in World Rankings
Criteria for evaluating universities: Size: XL -more than 30 thousand students; L -more than 12 thousand students; M -more than 5 thousand students, S -less than 5 thousand students.
Res: VH -very high level of research activity; HI -high level of research activity; MD -moderate level of research activity; LO -limited level of research activity.
Each university undergoing the expert assessment of QS Universities Ranking is assigned these indexes in order to indicate objective indicators of their assessment. Universities.

Conclusion
The integration of Russian universities into the system of international rankings is associated with such global trends as globalization, activation of migration processes, virtualization and modernization of social institutions. For the adequate and effective inclusion of Russian universities in the system of the international market of educational services, the Russian system of higher education and science has been consistently reorganized and modernized in accordance with the requirements of the world scientific community. The consequence of this was the inclusion of Russia in the Bologna system of higher education, the reorganization of the university education system and the activation of international collaborations with other world universities.
To meet the requirements of the world rankings, programs of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education (Project 5-100), as well as national projects (national project "Science and Universities", national project "Education") were developed for Russian universities. As a result of work within the framework of these projects, Russian universities were able to implement roadmaps related to the promotion of the positions of Russian universities in the system of international rankings. The result of these transformations was the inclusion of Russian periodicals in international databases, an increase in the share of publications with the participation of Russian scientists in international databases, an increase in the number of projects with the participation of leading world scientists and Russian researchers, the activation of academic mobility of student, faculty, scientific and pedagogical personnel, the creation of new training programs, including joint cooperation with other universities at all levels of education, as well as the general intensification of research activities of universities. Thanks to a competent strategy for the development of Russian universities, detailed development of roadmaps of specific universities, taking into account their individual characteristics and needs, Russian universities continue to expand their sphere of influence in the international arena and advance in the positions of the world's leading rankings.