The education ministers of the fives BRICS countries, Brazil, Russia, India, China,

South Africa have agreed to set up a new global university ranking. This was

one of the outcomes of a meeting in Mpumalanga, South Africa reported by

TASS,

The announcement is the culmination of several years of dissatisfaction with

international rankings. Some Chinese universities have declared that they will

not participate while seven Indian Institutes of Technology have declared a

boycott of theTimes Higher Education World University Rankings.

So far there appears to be no indication of the metrics to be included in the

new rankings. The Russian Deputy Minister of Science and Higher Education is

reported to have said that it “should be based on objective data and enjoy

universal trust.”