Academic excellence projects, similar to Russia’s Project 5-100, are common in many countries, but BRICS countries typically have the largest number of universities participating in such projects. That is perhaps why the ranking of the top universities in the five BRICS countries – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – prepared by the QS ranking agency is of particular interest. For two years in a row, 10 Russian universities have been steadily entering the top 50 of this ranking. This time, HSE has taken 37th place, improving its result on last year.