The ranking has existed for 16 years, this year it represents more higher education institutions than ever before: 1527 universities in the world. The number of Russian universities in the world ranking has increased from 39 to 48.

The Southern Federal University entered the prestigious international Times Higher Education ranking and took 17th place among 48 Russian universities, noted in the ranking of the best universities in the world according to the British magazine Times Higher Education (THE). SFedU entered the category 1001+ rating together with other universities in Russia.

Southern Federal University has strengthened its indicators in the field of scientific research (in 2020 - 10, 2021 - 11.1), in the field of industrial income (2020 - 41.9, 2021 - 44.2) and in the field of international attractiveness (2020 - 27.1, 2021 - 28.7).

The key criterion for inclusion in the ranking is the number of publications indexed in Scopus. The level of university achievements in The World University Rankings is assessed based on the results of a statistical analysis of their activities, as well as the results of an annual global expert survey of representatives of the international academic community and employers.

The rating evaluates universities according to the following parameters: the level of teaching, the quality of research activities and the volume of citation of research papers, the involvement of the university in innovation processes and global research.

Thirteen carefully calibrated performance indicators are used to provide the most complete and balanced comparisons.