This year KFU's success has been expanded by the Three Star award of the Quacquarelli Symonds Limited (UK) (QS-Stars) after an audit evaluation of core criteria.

QS Stars is a rating system which allows students to get a wider picture of an institution?s qualities, looking at everything from the employability of graduates, to sports facilities and community engagement. It is designed to reflect the nuanced mission of universities, and the needs of students who may be interested in things other than those to which traditional rankings are necessarily limited.

The QS Stars audit evaluates an institution against over 50 different indicators, and awards universities between one and five + stars over eight wider fields, as well as an overall rating.

Three stars means that the university is well-known in its country and is worldwide recognized.  The institution supports the reputable level of research, and its graduates are attractive for employers.

According to the KFU Centre for Prospective Development, the audit was held April 9 ? July 17. The University provided a significant data set on international activity, teaching quality, publications, patent activity, partnership with top universities, employability of graduates, university infrastructure, and implemented social and cultural programmes.

Overall results for Kazan Federal University in each category cluster:

Some interesting facts drawn from the QS Stars analysis include:

The audit has highlighted Research as the main area of improvement for the University. From all the Core Categories, Kazan State Federal University gets its lowest rating in this category with Two Stars. In general, the ratio of 0.6 citations per faculty is considered relatively low. For non-English Speaking countries increasing the number of papers that have English language abstracts could have some beneficial influence in research visibility. Taking part in more international conferences, producing more published works and promoting the research of the institution can be considered as key strategies. Attracting more Prolific academic experts would also contribute to the University's rating.

The Teaching category reveals that Kazan State Federal University has good results overall with 3 Stars. A good portion of the staff holds doctoral titles, but the faculty student ratio however is the one yielding the maximum available points. Strategies leading to potentially better results in the future should focus on increasing completion for the courses, whereas students could be  encouraged to undertake further study.

Internationalization is an area where the institution achieved Three Stars. Suggestions for improving in this category include: Fostering agreements for both inbound and outbound exchange students; increasing the proportion of international students and faculty, which plays a key role in the Internationalization rating.

The institution has an excellent graduate employability rate, contributing positively to its performance. In addition careers? officers give the chance to students to access these services with relative ease. There are opportunities for improvement in this sector since the institution received just 24 recruiter nominations in the QS Global Employer Survey. Working closely with companies and ensuring to send an updated list of employer contacts every year to QS is recommended.

Kazan State Federal University has a strong showing in Facilities. There are many sporting facilities and many computers available for students? use, along with internet access for all the rooms. Students benefit from a solid library investment and the increased acquisition of new titles, although additional funding would improve results even further. All these aspects would contribute to form a solid study environment and improve the ratings of the institution.

The Accreditation of some courses in Economic theory, Management and Humanities from both domestic and international agencies yielded a One Star rating in the Specialist Area of Social Sciences and Management. The increasing specialization and academic recognition of excellence of the University in key subject areas could potentially yield better results if these subjects would achieve the threshold of the QS Subject Rankings in the future.

Looking at the results in the Access category, it is clear that portion of the students is identified as low income, and the University is running a generous scholarship scheme. A more positive rating could be achieved by a broader and inclusive policy to facilitate access to the University for people with disabilities as well as balancing the gender distribution among the student body.

Finally, in the Innovation Category, the University has a strong record in both patents held and industrial collaborations. It received a Five Star rating in this category and could focus in the future in the fostering of possible spin off companies, bolstering regional entrepreneurship.

QS Intelligence Unit has collected data from Kazan State Federal University and has evaluated it against the QS Stars criteria; Kazan State Federal University has been awarded Three Stars.

The following Russian universities were awarded three stars in QS rating ? Moscow State University of Foreign Affairs, Lobachevsky Nizhny Novgorod State University, Higher school of Economics,  and Siberian Federal University.

The highest result of the audit is the Five Stars +. Today it was awarded to 7 world universities, including: