A rankings showcase for the BRICS

View the full results of the BRICS & Emerging Economies Rankings 2016

“The production of new knowledge should not be the preserve of the rich and powerful countries of the world.”

These words, written for Times Higher Education back in 2012 by University of Cape Town vice-chancellor Max Price, provide something of a mission statement for the THE BRICS & Emerging Economies Rankings.

“In a globalised economy,” he wrote, “if a country cannot integrate reasonably competitively into global systems of trade, finance, communications and data, production, quality assurance and global markets, it cannot develop. If a developing country is not independently competent to advocate its position in global policy debates…it will not be able to protect and promote its interests.”

This is what the THE BRICS & Emerging Economies Rankings are all about. More and more nations are recognising the huge economic and social value of nurturing globally competitive research universities. More and more universities need performance data to monitor their progress against tough, trusted, global benchmarks. More and more ambitious students, and their families, need clear performance data to help them to navigate a burgeoning but often variable and confusing global higher education sector.

This ranking showcases the leading research-intensive universities from the so-called “BRICS” nations – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – and all other countries defined by the FTSE as “advanced emerging”, “secondary emerging” or “frontier economies”. Some 48 countries are eligible for inclusion, and a total of 35 countries made the final top 200 ranking. Last year, there were 100 universities in just 18 countries in the top ranking.

The universities included are judged against the same rigorous, exacting performance indicators that are used in the THE World University Rankings, but the indicator weightings have been specially recalibrated to better reflect the profile and priorities of the nations concerned (view the full methodology).

With more performance data to benchmark their progress, with greater global visibility and with greater recognition of their strengths, we expect to see more and more of the universities in this list challenging, over time, for their place among the traditional elites in the overall world university rankings.

As Max Price wrote: “This is about not being merely consumers of others’ innovations and ideas but being explorers and shapers of the future.”

Phil Baty
Editor, Times Higher Education World University Rankings
Twitter: @Phil_Baty

Countries represented in the BRICS & Emerging Economies Rankings 2016 top 200