World Rating For Khazar University And Other Education Organizations

Online, October 23, 2010 (Newswire.com) - In the modern world, a good higher education institution is recognized by its emphasis on scientific research, constant development of its material and technological foundation as well as the potential of its personnel, and the quality of the education it provides. The reputation of a higher education institution is also directly connected to its international recognition and approval by universities, industries, and the media.

The era in which Azerbaijan has gained independence coincides with an era of changes caused by the world information technology revolution and the strengthening of globalization. But because our higher education institutions are undergoing modernization slowly, they are not well known in international spheres. Azerbaijani higher education institutions do not show up in world-wide rating analysis that are based on various criteria.

The creation of private higher education institutions alongside government institutions has taken on characteristics of a rivalry. Newly-created private higher education institutions in Azerbaijan that have high potential in their personnel have faced inevitable problems for years because of their rivalry with state institutions in certain criteria (i.e. the number of instructors on staff and the number of scientific articles). Despite those problems, some private universities have become more active and have begun to look more modern than state schools in areas such as the quality of their education, modern teaching programs, the application of modern training models, language policies, development of international partnerships, and application of information technologies.

Since 2004, higher education institutions worldwide have been ranked by a system called Webometrics. This rating system is run by a prestigious research center, the famous State Scientific Research Center (Consejo Superior de Ä°nvestigac Cientifacasiones) in Spain. This center was founded by Nobel laureate Prof. Ramon y Cajal in 1907.

Until 2010, Webometrics investigated 15,000 to 17,000 higher education institutions and announced the top 5000. At the beginning of 2010, 18,000 schools were included, and of those, the top 8,000 were announced. Among the world's top 8000 institutions, two Azerbaijani universities were included: Khazar and Qafqaz.
This time, the world's top 12,000 universities were studied, researched and ranked. Among the world's top 6,000 higher education institutions, again a total of two were included from Azerbaijan: Khazar and Qafqaz.

Universities were evaluated in four categories. The basic criteria were: world recognition of the institution, volume of space taken up by electronic material, evaluations of the institution by others, and volume of material in scientific publications.
The current ranking differs from previous rankings in that this time, not only were higher education institutions evaluated, but research was performed and ratings were also given in such fields as science, training, and health.

Another rating of special interest is that of world scientific research schools, including various academies of science, which have a strong electronic presence with open-access collections of scientific works.

Of 2500 scientific centers that were investigated and ranked in this study, the Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences took the 1012th place. It is noteworthy for comparison that the Academy of Sciences' counterpart in Turkey (TUBITAK) took the 145th place, Moldova- 728th, Armenia- 878th, and Georgia- 964th.

The same evaluation (based on modernity, openness, electronic strength, and scientific-research support) was made among libraries. Considering the extraordinary role played by libraries in information centers in the modern world in science and education, this rating is also of great interest.

The world's best 800 libraries were included within the rating. Not just in Azerbaijan, but in the 8 countries comprising all of the Caucasus and Central Asia, only one library was included: the Khazar University library!