HSE Tops the Ranking of Universities with the Best Employer Reputation

On October 16, 2025, Forbes Education published its list of the top 20 Russian universities with the best employer reputation in 2025. The ranking was based on a survey of leading Russian employers, who named the higher education institutions whose graduates they consider the most well-prepared and are most inclined to hire. HSE University took first place in the ranking.
HSE’s reputation index scored 98 points, with 64.2% of employers saying they trust the quality of education provided by the university.
The top three also include Lomonosov Moscow State University and Bauman Moscow State Technical University. Among the twenty universities with the best employer reputation are fourteen based in Moscow, three in St Petersburg, and one each in Yekaterinburg, Kazan, and Tomsk.
The survey involved companies featured in Forbes’s list of Russia’s best employers—organisations from various regions representing 43 sectors of the economy. These companies offer competitive salaries and optimal working conditions, demonstrate transparent corporate governance, and adhere to ESG principles.
Employers also highlighted universities that lead in the following fields of study: economics, engineering, marketing and communications, natural sciences, creative industries, and the humanities.
When calculating the ranking, points were awarded in two categories: Overall Reputation and Sectoral Reputation. In the final reputation index, the Overall Reputation score accounted for 70% of the total weight, and Sectoral Reputation for 30%.
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