Irkutsk State University has strengthened its position in the prestigious world subject ranking Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings 2026 by subject: Physical sciences. This year ISU not only reaffirmed its presence in the ranking, but also advanced, climbing 15 places to break into the top 10 among all Russian Universities in the ranking, securing 9th place in the “Physical Sciences” category.
The ranking evaluates universities using 18 performance indicators categorised under five core pillars: the quality of teaching and research environment, citation impact, innovation level and income from industry partnerships and patents, international outlook. The category “Physical Sciences” include disciplines such as physics, chemistry, astronomy, environmental, earth and marine sciences, geology, mathematics and statistics.
The 2026 edition features 1,497 universities from 109 countries, including 52 Russian universities. Irkutsk State University is the sole representative of the higher education institutions from Irkutsk region in this category. In the world list of universities ISU is ranked 1251+.
The best result among Russian universities was shown by Lomonosov Moscow State University, which took 80th place in the world in the “Physical Sciences” subject.
