According to the new ranking of the best Russian universities published by Forbes, Lobachevsky University holds 35th place, also becoming the first among Nizhny Novgorod universities. Other Nizhny Novgorod institutions of higher education include  Alekseev State Technical University of Nizhny Novgorod (74th place), Volga Research Medical University (89th place) and  Glinka Nizhny Novgorod State Conservatory (90th place).

This year, Forbes has adjusted its ranking methodology, in particular, to better assess the employability of the graduates. As noted in the Forbes materials, the ranking uses three main indicators, Quality of Education, Quality of Graduates, and the ‘Forbes Factor’. The first indicator takes into account faculty salaries, student/faculty ratio, the share of international students at the university, the level of development of international activities, the quality of knowledge of freshmen based on their USE scores and a number of other criteria. To assess the indicators of the Quality of Graduates metric, the experts of the publication, together with the federal Internet service "Avito Jobs", conducted a survey of managers of more than 120 major Russian companies. The Forbes Factor indicator reflects the prestige of the institution. This year, in particular, the authors of the ranking considered the universities’ positions in leading foreign rankings, such as the QS World University Rankings and the Times Higher Education ranking. In addition, the Forbes Factor takes into account how many of a university's students and recent graduates are on Forbes’s ranking of promising Russians, as well as how many children of Russia's business elite study or have studied at the given university.