On 19 June there were announced the results of one of the most well-known and prestigious annual ratings – the Quacquarelli Symonds World University Rankings (QS). Saratov University has been included there for the sixth time. Maintaining a high position among all the universities inserted into the rankings it has taken the 17^th place among 25 other Russian universities from the rating. This year SSU holds the 521^st-530^th position.

Recently Saratov University has reinforced in its group and it traditionally competes with such strong universities as Tomsk Polytechnic University (the 387^th place), Kazan Federal University and the Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia (both taking the 392^nd position), ITMO University (436^th place), Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University (439^th position), the National University of Science and Technology MISIS (451^st place). SSU has outperformed Far Eastern Federal University (the 531^st-540^th position), Southern Federal University (the 541^st-550^th place), Lobachevsky State University of Nizhni Novgorod (the 601^st-650^th position), Samara National Research University (the 651^st-700^th place), Plekhanov Russian University of Economics (the 751^st-800^th position), Novosibirsk State Technical University, South Ural State University, and Voronezh State University (the last three hold the 801^st-1000^th place).

Regional QS Director Zoya Zaitseva commented in her interview to the Russian News Agency TASS that different universities from other countries had become more competitive, therefore, Russian universities had to work hard in order to stay in the ratings. The director added only 1000 higher education institutions would be included in the QS rankings, and it means that if new universities take any position in the top-1000 list, some universities will lose their position and be withdrawn from the rating. Comparing the results of the previous year rating in 2019 two Russian universities have dropped out of the list.  And the best Russian university in the rating is Lomonosov Moscow State University (the 84^th position).

The most important criteria for the rating are academic affairs and research work indicators, and Saratov University has quite high results in those spheres. According to the h-index parameter, SSU sustainably takes the 9^th place among other Russian universities.

Following the materials of www.topuniversities.com, tass.ru