Society pays little attention to the problems of methodology for rankings and criterial indices, which allow choosing and ranking universities and scientific institutions, although rankings themselves are widely spread in the educational space; and their results serve as key indicators for assessment of scientific and educational institutions. The paper discloses by the example of Shanghai’s ranking its true target, bias of a number of indicators as well as the reasons for the choice and weight setting for certain indicators. The author suggests an alternative method for ranking based on available data.