Kazan University delegation headed by Vice-Rector Marat Safiullin attended a Webometrics seminar held by the Project 5-100 Office in Moscow on September 23rd.

106 representatives of 30 leading Russian universities visited the event. Isidro Aguillo, Editor of Webometrics, became the main speaker. He told the audience about the global awareness about Russian universities from the Webometrics’ standpoint.

Mr. Aguillo said that growth in rankings is not up to only the content managers of an institution’s website. He emphasized the importance of everyone’s involvement into this process. He also mentioned that Webometrics might soon include social network activities into their ranking methodology.

Using the example of MIT he showed how important the presence of open courses is for the Internet policy of a university. Medicine is also an important drawing factor. In conclusion the speaker held a master class where he presented the methodology of information gathering for the rankings so that the interested researchers could reproduce it if need be.