A strategic goal in university development as a research center is meeting as far as possible main indexes of the leading universities and creating preconditions for entering 500 best universities in the 11 World University Rankings. Among them, QS ranking, Times Higher Education and Shanghai one comprise three of the most powerful and credible university ranking research.

V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National University's entry into world rankings QS became one of the logical results of strategic development programme fulfilment and the fact of the university being recognized as a world-class one. By annual data of world rankings QS World University Rankings–2021, V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University holds the first place among Ukrainian high education institutions and is included to top–500 of the best world universities. It’s been the seventh time Karazin University made it to top–500 best universities of the world, holding the 477 th place. This is the best result among all Ukrainian higher education institutions included in the Rankings. Karazin University improved its position in the Rankings by 14 positions, compared to the QS–2020.

In 2018 V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National University’s for the first time has participated in the international ecologic university rankings — UI GreenMetric World University Rankings and became one of 500 leading world universities that provide education in sustainable development. Universities of 81 countries took part in the research and Karazin University took 496 th place among them. GreenMetric ranking measures university’s implementation of sustainable development, “ecologically clean” infrastructure creation and examines ecologic education aspects implementation in the learning process. Specific attention is paid to the scale of the university's deployment of rational consumption of energy and resources, emissions and waste management, energy efficiency improvement and other infrastructural aspects of high education institution's activity.

The University in the world rankings:

1. QS World University Rankings — is a global examination of achievement indicators of higher education institutions in education and science, one of the most influential rankings in the world. It’s calculated by British consulting company Quacquarelli Symonds (QS).

2. Times Higher Education World University Rankings — annual university ranking in Times Higher Education (THE) magazine.

3. U-Multirank — is an international university ranking which is conducted by the European Centre for Higher Education.

4. UI GreenMetric World University Ranking — international ecologic university ranking that implements education in sustainable development. The assessment is based on the 6 groups of parameters: education in sustainable development, convenient infrastructure, transport policy, waste-recycling programmes, use of energy-efficient technologies and water conservation.