Following the release of the second edition of the QS University Rankings: BRICS, here’s a closer look at how universities in Brazil compare to their counterparts in other fast-growing economies.The ranking is based on eight indicators, designed to assess international reputation, research, academic staff levels and internationalization, making it possible to assess the strengths and weaknesses of individual institutions, and also to identify national trends.

A total of 45 universities in Brazil are included among the top 200 BRICS institutions, including two top-10 entries: Universidade de São Paulo (USP) is 7th while Universidade Estadual de Campinas (Unicamp) is 9=, both having climbed one place since the last edition of the ranking. Eight more Brazilian universities are included within the BRICS top 50.

International reputation

The first two indicators used are designed to assess institutions’ international reputation, both within the global academic community and among graduate employers worldwide. This is based on major international surveys of academics and employers, who are asked to name the institutions they perceive as producing the best research and graduates in their field.

Overall, the leading universities in Brazil tend to have a slightly stronger reputation among academics than employers. Universidade de Sao Paulo is rated third among BRICS universities by academics and sixth by employers, while Unicamp is ninth and 14th respectively. A further six Brazilian universities are among the top 50 in the academic survey, while no more Brazilian entries appear among the top 50 according to employers. It seems that while Brazil’s top universities have a relatively strong profile in the academic sector, China and India have been much more successful at capturing the attention of the recruitment world, through the strong brands of the C9 group and the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs).

Academic staff

A further two indicators are dedicated to assessing academic staff levels, looking at the ratio of academic staff employed relative to students enrolled (faculty/student ratio) and the proportion of academic staff qualified to PhD level. The latter is a major strength for Brazilian universities compared to other BRICS nations; Brazil claims five of the top-10 scores on this measure.

Faculty/student ratio is, overall, a much weaker area for Brazil. The country does have eight representatives within the BRICS top 50 on this indicator, but most of these are outside the top 50 overall and have much lower scores for the staff with PhD and research indicators. This suggests a research/teaching divide among Brazil’s top universities, with those that perform well in terms of research tending to have a weaker focus on student support and class size.

Research

The BRICS ranking assesses research both in terms of production rate (papers published per faculty member) and impact (citations per paper). Brazil’s two highest entrants overall, Universidade de São Paulo (USP) and Universidade Estadual de Campinas (Unicamp), fare relatively well in terms of research productivity, ranking 12th and 15th respectively for papers published per faculty member.

Just one more Brazilian university, the Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP), appears within the BRICS top 50 on this indicator. In general, the research productivity ranking is overwhelmingly dominated by Chinese institutions, the beneficiaries of heavy government investment in increasing research production.

When it comes to citations per paper, Brazil’s performance reflects the challenge of attaining global impact while publishing research primarily in Portuguese. Five universities in Brazil are within the BRICS top 50 here, led by Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP), at 22nd.

Internationalization

Finally, the ranking assesses universities’ success in internationalizing their academic and student communities, considering the proportion of faculty members and students from overseas. Here, it’s clear that Brazilian universities are still in the early stages compared to their BRICS counterparts, with efforts to increase global exchange and collaboration yet to see significant impact.

Yet while Brazil has no representatives among the BRICS top 100 for proportion of international students, it has much better scores when considering proportion of international academics. Ten universities in Brazil are within the top 50 on this measure, with the Universidade Estadual do Norte Fluminense (ranked outside the top 100 overall) excelling here in fourth place.