Long-term perspectives of influence of the Matthew effect of universities ranking on the higher education system. Bebenina Ekaterina V.. Otechestvennaya I zarubezhnaya pedagogika. 2019. № 2. v.2  pp. 97-105.

The Matthew Effect is widespread in various areas of public life. The Matthew Effect was proposed by Robert Merton to describe the citation of articles. The Matthew Effect also extends to university ratings, which in turn have a similar impact on the entire world system of higher education. The Matthew Effect is present in the relationship of the distribution of the best universities in the world with the level of innovation and is confirmed by the policy of hightech countries to invest more in education. The effect of this Matthew Effect is actually a positive feedback. The author of this article is modeling radical scenarios. The strongest universities will strengthen their positions, the weakest will weaken, the middle universities will be polarized to a large extent. The strongest universities in the world according to university ratings are about 5% and are located in less than half of the countries of the world. The polarization of universities will lead to increased social stratification at the state level.