Why is the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology rated so low on the ARWU?

Question

The Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) is heavily influenced by staff and alumni as Fields medalists and Nobel laureates. MIPT has graduated 10 Nobel laureates, a number that's greater than most institutions, yet it is only ranked 501-600 on the ARWU. Why?

MIPT's page on the ARWU website doesn't say (or I am looking at the wrong page).

Does this answer your question? Why do Russian and Israeli universities score low in various world rankings? — Anyon, Jul 14 '23 at 03:50
Not really, since this asks about a specific university and a particular ranking. — Allure, Jul 14 '23 at 04:08
Why do you think it should be higher? The page you link clearly says that the number of graduates who win Nobel prizes counts for only 10% of the score. So even if they got a perfect score by this metric, once the other 90% is factored in, they apparently did worse than 500+ other schools. — cag51, Jul 14 '23 at 04:23
@cag51 it's conceivable. In that case I would like to see some data showing how the rest of the indicators are worse at MIPT, to the point that they override the Nobel laureate effect. — Allure, Jul 14 '23 at 14:48
Clearly all the other factors, making 70% of the score, don't work terribly well in their favor. — Jon Custer, Jul 14 '23 at 18:18

score 3 · Answer 1 · answered Jul 14 '23 at 05:16

Given news stories such as this one:

https://t.me/ostorozhno_moskva/4262 English translation:

MIPT has changed the curriculum for foreign languages. As university students say, Chinese has become compulsory and is studied on a par with English. Spanish disappeared from the curriculum, followed by German and French. It is impossible to sign up for a new course, now only those who studied them before the reform pass these languages. Instead, students are offered 2 hours of English and Chinese. However, there is a shortage in the study groups, the university administration forcibly requires students to enroll for training.

Students oppose such innovations. “There is a feeling that a riot is indispensable. Students do not respond to verbal objections. They do not respond to oral objections from current teachers. This means that we need to stop talking and do something real: pickets, boycotts, letters. After all, this applies to everyone, ”the students write on social networks.

and this one: https://www.commerce.gov/news/press-releases/2021/11/commerce-lists-entities-involved-support-prc-military-quantum-computing

BIS has also added the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology to the MEU List on the basis of its production of military products for a military end-user.

I'm surprised that it hasn't scored much lower.

I like Spain and all, and this may be provocative, but: Shouldn't the introduction of mandatory Mandarin (I suppose) improve a university's ranking? It is probably the most useful language to learn, alongside with English. — Peter - Reinstate Monica, Jul 14 '23 at 12:40
@Peter-ReinstateMonica Not if you don't have the staff to actually teach Mandarin to that many students. And it may not improve their ranking that the foreign language department stops offering Spanish, German and French. — Servaes, Jul 14 '23 at 12:58

Why is the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology rated so low on the ARWU?

1 Answers1