An indicator of the level of international recognition equal to 1.1 for higher education institutions included in the TOP–1,000 of one of the international rankings (without division into faculties, specialties, etc.): QS World University Rankings, and/or The Times Higher Education World University rating Rankings, and/or Academic Ranking of World Universities – WorldTop 500 Universities, or 1.0 in other cases (taking into account the latest version of the ratings, officially published by December 31 of the previous calendar year).

An indicator of the level of international recognition IR_i equal to 1.1 for higher education institutions included in the TOP–1,000 of one of the international rankings (without division into faculties, specialties, etc.): QS World University Rankings, and/or The Times Higher Education World University rating Rankings, and/or Academic Ranking of World Universities – WorldTop 500 Universities, or 1.0 in other cases (taking into account the latest version of the ratings, officially published by December 31 of the previous calendar year).

This is a very important indicator that ultimately forms the international public opinion about the system of higher education in Ukraine, but to use a binary number system («yes – no») to form the indicator is not sufficiently justified. If we recognize that Ukraine does not have high–quality own rating systems, then there are a sufficient number of unbiased systems in the world that will make it possible to establish at least a 3–4-level gradation of HEI.

For example, for HEIs that do not have rating positions IR_i = 1.0; for HEI included in QS REGIONAL IR_i = 1.1; for HEIs included in QS WorldUniversityRankings, and/or The Times Higher Education World University Rankings, and/or Academic Ranking of World Universities – World Top 500 Universities IR_i = 1.2.