Marina Larionova -Dr. of Political Science, Head of International Organisations Research Institute (IORI)of the National Research University Higher School of Economics, 20 Myasnitskaya, 101000, Moscow, Russian Federation; E-mail:mlarionova@hse.ru

Irina Lazutina -MSc in Cultural Management,Researcher at the Centre for International Comparative Studies of the International Organisations Research Institute (IORI) of the National Research University Higher School of Economics,20 Myasnitskaya, 101000, Moscow, Russian Federation; E-mail:ilazutina@hse.ru

Anastasya Lopatina -M.Sc in Political Economy, Intern at the US-Russia Civil Society Partnership Program, Eurasia Foundation, 1350 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Suite 1000, Washington, DC 20036, USA; E-mail:alopatina@eurasia.org

Vitaly Nagornov -PhD in Economics, Director of the Research Centre for International Cooperation and Development of the International Organisations Research Institute (IORI) ofthe National Research University “Higher School of Economics”, 20 Myasnitskaya, 101000, Moscow, Russian Federation; E-mail:VNagornov@hse.ru

Olga Perfilieva -PhD in Sociology,Director of the Centre for International Comparative Studies of the International Organisations Research Institute (IORI) ofthe National Research University Higher School of Economics, 20 Myasnitskaya, 101000, Moscow, Russian Federation; E-mail:Perfilieva@hse.ru

Lubov Zavarykina -MEd, Researcher at the Centre for International Comparative Studies of the International Organisations Research Institute (IORI) of the National Research University Higher School of Economics,20 Myasnitskaya, 101000, Moscow, Russian Federation; E-mail:lzavarykina@hse.ru

The article presents an analysis of the ranking methodology approbation outcomes. The methodology was developed within the project «Developing and Approbating a Template Methodology for National Ranking of Higher Education Institutions» implemented by the National Training Foundation within a project of the Ministry of Education and Science, RF in 2011- 2013. The paper highlights the methodological aspects of the ranking construction and explore how the ranking outcomes may be used to group universities according to their core characteristics.

Methods of data collection (self-reported questionnaire), data processing (normalization,) and statistical analysis procedures (grouping) are thoroughly discussed by the authors. The employed methods enabled researchers to construct 6 types of rankings. According to the ranking outcomes 3 groups of universities were identified: leaders, competitors and catching up. Further analysis revealed that the group of leaders (8 universities) is homogeneous and consists of National Research Universities. It is also shown that Russian universities demonstrate high results in such evaluation areas as teaching and learning and knowledge transfer, but have moderate achievements in research and internationalization.

The authors discuss possible trends in the Russian Higher Education system development and prospects for the methodology application.  The approbation outcomes revealed thata landscape of the Russian Higher Education system is changing and HEIs could be divided in 6 groups according to their qualitative characteristics. Thus, the developed methodology could be used not only for evaluation HEIs performance but for a comprehensive analysis of the Russian Higher Education system development.