Latest results of Webometrics Ranking of World Universities, the international web-ranking of the international education institutions, were published.

In the Russian segment Penza State University has demonstrated highest growth compared to the previous periods. For 6 months PSU has climbed 29 places in the Russian segment and nearly 1000 places in the world one. Nowadays PSU occupies the 67^th place among Russian universities and the 3879^th among world universities (July 2016 the 96^th place and 4787^th place respectively).

Lomonosov Moscow State University (the 216^th in the world ranking), Saint Petersburg State University (the 526^th place in the world) and Novosibirsk State University (the 548^th place in the world) are still the recognized leaders in the Russian segment. According to Webometrics Ranking, it is the Harvard University that takes the lead.

The ranking approach is based on four criteria, each evaluates success of the higher education institution following its place on the Internet and has a certain weighting coefficient.

·         According to the criterion of presence the total amount of Web-pages hosted on the master domain of the university and indexed by Google is calculated (weight – 10%).

·         According to the criterion of visibility the number of backlinks to the domain of the university and the quality of these sources is analyzed (weight – 50%).

·         According to the criterion of transparency the university activities in establishing its own archives of scientific papers in pdf-format that are indexed by Google are considered (weight – 10%).

·         According to the criterion of scientific excellence the number of scientific papers of the university included into 10% of the most cited papers of the corresponding research area over the past 5 years is estimated (weight – 30%).

Other HEIs of Penza Region have been also included in Webometrics Ranking. Among Russian universities they show the following results: Penza State University of Technology occupies the 403^rd place in Russia, Penza State University of Architecture and Construction is on the 456^th place, Penza State Agriculture Academy is ranked 749^th.