The top higher educational institutions list contains 750 participants from 20 countries. 75% of the ranked higher educational institutions (HEIs) are located in five countries: China (216), Russia (169), India (97), Brazil (56), and Iran (28).
The ranking is part of The Three University Missions family of rankings; the pilot version was published in 2024. This year, the geographical coverage of the ranking expanded significantly due to the rapid enlargement of the BRICS grouping. The new participants are Indonesia as well as nine countries that had joined BRICS as partner states by June 1, 2025: Belarus, Bolivia, Kazakhstan, Cuba, Malaysia, Nigeria, Thailand, Uganda, and Uzbekistan.
“BRICS countries, including partner states, account for over half of the world's population. This is a vast educational market that needs its own higher education quality assessment framework. Representatives of the grouping's countries have repeatedly expressed interest in new ranking, discussed approaches to its compilation and specific criteria," comments on the relevance of the study Viktor Sadovnichy, Lomonosov Moscow State University Rector. “The advantages of the Russian version of the pilot ranking of BRICS universities include a system of indicators crafted with due regard for the priorities and specific features of BRICS educational institutions as well as reliance on objective verifiable data, wherein subjective expert assessments are fully excluded.”
The 2025 ranking winners are Peking University (the 1st place), Lomonosov Moscow State University (the 2nd place), and Saint Petersburg State University (the 3rd place) that took over the podium from last year's winner, Tsinghua University. In addition to Chinese and Russian universities, the Top-100 also includes educational institutions from 10 other countries: India, South Africa, Thailand, Brazil, Malaysia, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Belarus, the UAE, and Egypt.
The University of Cape Town was once again recognized as the best among participants from South Africa (the 20th place). The national leader of Thailand, Chulalongkorn University, took the 23rd place. Among Indian universities, the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore earned the highest score (the 25th place). The leading higher education institutions of Saudi Arabia, Belarus, and Malaysia scored among the fourth ten: King Saud University, Belarusian State University, and the University of Malaya ranked 32nd, 36th, and 38th, respectively. The highest-ranked Brazilian university was the University of São Paulo (the 43rd place). The Indonesian Gadjah Mada University ranked 57th, the flagship university of the UAE – the United Arab Emirates University took the 62nd place, and the the American University in Cairo once again became the leader among Egyptian universities (the 68th place). Representatives from other countries are positioned outside the top hundred.
“A wide range of criteria of The Three University Missions family of rankings allows to assess in a fair manner all the key missions of universities – educational, scientific, and social – helping to identify the strengths and weaknesses of higher education institutions in different countries. For example, educational activities can be credited to Russian and Chinese HEIs – 85 institutions from Russia and China are included in the Top-100 for this parameter. Chinese universities are also widely represented in the top rankings for scientific activities, while HEIs in South Africa demonstrate high scores in the 'third mission'," noted Dmitry Grishankov, General Director of the Association of Rating, Ranking and Other Performance Evaluation Makers, Advisor to the President of the Russian Union of Rectors, and Deputy Chairman of the Public Council under the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation.
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Rating Information
The idea for the ranking was proposed in 2023 by representatives from South Africa and was documented in the declaration following the meeting of the education ministers of the BRICS countries in the same year. On June 11, 2024, at a meeting in Kazan, the education ministers of the BRICS countries confirmed their intention to support the project and took a decision to hold regular seminars to discuss academic leadership with participation of representatives from ministries and professional communities of the BRICS countries.
Earlier, President of Russia Vladimir Putin had approved the idea of preparation of the ranking of BRICS universities based on The Three University Missions ranking family, developed by the Russian Union of Rectors since 2012. On February 8, 2024, Viktor Sadovnichiy, President of the Russian Union of Rectors, Rector of Lomonosov Moscow State University put forward this initiative at the meeting of the Council under the President of the Russian Federation for Science and Education.
The principles forming the basis for the Russian version of the pilot ranking of BRICS universities were announced at the Congress of the Russian Union of Rectors in July 2024 and were subsequently discussed and supported by working groups of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Russian Academy of Education, and the Ministry of Science and Higher Education. The principles are posted on the website of The Three University Missions ranking.
The Russian version of the pilot ranking of BRICS universities was first published in October 2024, and the final list featured 600 positions. The second edition of the ranking (December 2025) includes 750 universities from 20 countries.