Education ministers representing the bloc of nations, which encompasses Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, committed at a meeting in July to “rethink and reimagine” global rankings for universities.

In a joint statement, the group accused established ranking systems of being “skewed towards valuing the priorities and context of universities of the Global North”.

Many universities saw a significant change in position in the latest QS rankings as the metrics were updated, leading some institutions to boycott the rankings altogether.

BRICS ministers said existing rankings impose “indefensible costs on developing countries” and detract from “norms emphasising cooperation, collaboration, sharing and solidarity”.

They said they would look to develop an alternative system that emphasises quality of research output over quantity, as well as integrating “cultural and indigenous knowledge” of each country.

It comes as BRICS expands beyond the founding members for the first time, with Saudi Arabia, Iran, Ethiopia, the United Arab Emirates, Argentina and Egypt all set to join the group.

“Since they first emerged in the early 2000s, global university rankings have privileged wealthier and better resourced universities and countries,” said Jelena Brankovic, a postdoctoral researcher focusing on rankings at Bielefeld University. “It is thus perfectly understandable that some governments wish to challenge the current system.”

“Global university rankings have privileged wealthier and better resourced universities”

“However, I am sceptical as to whether developing an ‘alternative’ global ranking is the answer to the problem,” she added, explaining that rankings increase competition and help “perpetuate exploitative economic arrangements”.

“The producers of rankings that currently dominate the global landscape are private companies from the Global North, whose interest in higher education is driven mainly, if not exclusively, by profit.

“To make profit, they extract ever-larger amounts of information and resources from the sector, which are then converted into data, analytics, and consulting services and sold back to universities, governments, and other interested parties.

“If the BRICS or any other group of countries wish to do something about global inequalities, they need to consider the implications of these economic arrangements as well.”

A timeline and further details of the new system have yet to be announced.