Geopolitical Meridians of World-Class Universities

The results of two waves of identification of world-class universities (for 2017 and 2019) are considered, giving a geopolitical "snapshot" of the market of leading universities of the world. It is shown that United Europe is forging ahead into the lead, while Asia and the United States have worsened their positions. It is economic and cultural factors that underlie success in the formation of global universities. The economic precondition is the presence of global high-tech companies in a country, the number and strength of which determine the number and strength of world-class universities; and the cultural precondition is a wide spread of "the philosophy of collaboration," which implies intensive sharing of experience between universities both at the domestic level and between countries through numerous forms of collaboration-international leagues and unions, regional consortia and groups, and professional associations and alliances.