"Lithuania gave in to the lure of Western liberalism and is now losing its youth," said BSU journalism dean Alexey Belyaev. He also compared Belarus’s and Lithuania’s top universities — not in Lithuania’s favor.
"Belarusian State University is undeniably larger in terms of student enrollment. Most importantly, BSU ranks among the world’s top 300 universities, according to the rankings, while Vilnius doesn’t," Belyaev said on Radio Minsk on July 11, 2025, during a discussion on higher education with Kiryl Kazakou, editor-in-chief of the Minsk Courier newspaper.
Weekly Top Fake journalists compared student enrollment at BSU and Vilnius University — both have roughly the same number, just over 24,000.
We also found that in none of the four major global university rankings does BSU place in the top 300 or outrank Vilnius University.
The most well-known and influential of these is the QS World University Rankings. The index evaluates 1,500 universities worldwide across 10 criteria. Vilnius holds the 446th spot, while Minsk comes in at 447.
The U.S. News & World Report Best Global Universities Rankings evaluates 2,250 universities. Vilnius ranks 959th, while Minsk comes in at 1,249.
In the Times Higher Education World University Rankings, Vilnius University landed among the top 1,200, while BSU failed to make even the top 1,500 in 2025.
BSU, along with all other Belarusian universities, did not make the Shanghai ranking, while Vilnius University placed in the top 600.
The WTF team also checked their positions in the Moscow International University Ranking. Vilnius University ranks higher there as well — at No. 294. BSU falls into the 301–350 range.
It’s likely that in citing BSU’s high ranking, journalism dean Belyaev was relying on old data— in 2021 and 2022, the Belarusian university did rank in the QS World University Rankings top 300 and did place ahead of the Lithuanian one.
