We have picked out more than 500 world-known universities, including almost one hundred higher educational institutions of Russia, the CIS countries and Baltic, from almost 15 thousand universities throughout the world for further estimation.

The definitive variant of the Ranking has included 430 universities.

For an adequate and all-round estimation of the selected universities we had to get engaged in the large-scale Internet search, and in this matter we are especially grateful to the universities which have responded to our inquiry letters.

We are delighted to list them:

· Yerevan State University (Armenia)

· Monash University (Australia)

· Belarus State University (Belarus)

· University of British Columbia (Canada)

· Friedrich Alexander University of Erlangen Nuremberg (Germany)

· University of Duisburg-Essen (Germany)

· University of Hong Kong (Hong Kong)

· Tokyo Institute of Technology (Japan)

· Al-Farabi Kazakh National University (Kazakhstan)

· East Kazakh State Technical University Named After D. Serikbaev (Kazakhstan)

· Kazakh National Technical University Named After K.I. Satpaev (Kazakhstan)

· Kazakhstan Institute of Management, Economy and Strategic Researches (Kazakhstan)

· Euroasian National University N.A. L.N. Gumilev (Kazakhstan)

· West Kazakhstan State University Named After M. Utemisov (Kazakhstan)

· North Kazakhstan State University Named After M. Kozybaev (Kazakhstan)

· National Autonomous University of Mexico (Mexico)

· Belgorod State University

· Vladivostok State University of Economics and Service

· Vladimir State University

· Voronezh State University

· Russian State University of Oil and Gas named after I.M.Gubkin

· Irkutsk State Technical University

· Kazan State Technological University

· Moscow State University Named After M.V.Lomonosov

· Ural State University Named After A.M.Gorky

· Moscow Aviation Institute (State Technical University)

· Moscow Engineering and Physical Institute (State University)

· State Technological University Moscow Institute of Steel and Alloys

· Moscow Power Engineering Institute (Technical University)

· Moscow State Institute of International Relations (University)

· Moscow State Technical University Named After N.E.Bauman

· Moscow State Construction University

· Nizhny Novgorod State University Named After N.I.Lobachevsky

· Nizhny Novgorod State Technical University Named After R.E.Alekseev

· Novosibirsk State University

· Russian University of People’s Friendship

· Perm State University

· Perm State Technical University

· Petrozavodsk State University

· Samara State Aerospace University Named After S.P.Korolev

· St.-Petersburg State Polytechnical University

· St.-Petersburg State University of Information Technologies, Fine Mechanics and Optics

· Saratov State University Named After N.G.Chernyshevsky

· Siberian Federal University

· Tomsk State University

· Tomsk State University of Control Systems and Radioelectronics

· Tomsk Polytechnical University

· Tyumen State University

· Ural State Technical University Named After The First President Of The Russian Federation B.N.Eltsin (Ural Technical University)

· Ufa State Aviation Technical University

· South Russian State Technical University

· South Ural State University

· Southern Federal University

· Stockholm University (Sweden)

· National Cheng Kung University (Taiwan)

· National Chiao Tung University (Taiwan)

· National Taiwan University (Taiwan)

· Donetsk National University (Ukraine)

· Donetsk National Technical University (Ukraine)

· National Technical University of Ukraine "Kharkov Polytechnical Institute" (Ukraine)

· Taurian National University Named After V.I.Vernadsky (Ukraine)

· Uzbekistan National University Named After M.Ulugbek (Uzbekistan).

We hope that this work will lay the technological bases for making up of the global ranking of the following generation, the third generation, differing from the global ratings of the previous generations by its concentration on the utmost informational openness of universities.

The further development of the world’s leading universities ranking should lead to expansion of the list of estimated higher educational institutions (both foreign and Russian) and to specification of estimations of national educational systems and specific HEIs.

The stored data, developed technologies of acquisition, processing and evaluation of information; developed estimation procedures allow us to organize further analytic work concerning definition of strengths and weaknesses of domestic universities in comparison with the world leading universities, as well as to assist the administrations of the universities in working out of the development mechanisms for the universities.

The independent rating agency RatER suggests the management of the universities carry out the profound analysis of indicators and estimations of a university and on its basis generate proposals on universities development.

The unique information array collected in the course of working out of the rating of leading universities of the world will be the basis for the investigation.