“Ulster University (UU) has risen to second place in the UK rankings for researcher satisfaction in the latest Postgraduate Research Experience Survey. The PhD benchmarking exercise surveyed postgraduate research students from 89 universities about their experiences, with UU leaping from eighth in the table in 2019 …” (more)
[Mark Bain, Belfast Telegraph, 30 July]
“Ireland is punching far above its weight when it comes to innovation and third-level education, outperforming the EU average, according to the European Commission’s latest findings. Innovation is broadly defined as developing new methods, ideas, and products to advance civilisation. Examples include researching and developing products all the way to market in fields such as medical devices, an industry in which Ireland has become a global player …” (more)
[Pádraig Hoare, Irish Examiner, 22 June]
Times Higher Education have released their latest international rankings for “young” universities, i.e. those aged 50 years or under. Irish institutions:
For more go here.
“There is nearly always a theme for the publication of global rankings. Often it is the rise of Asia, or parts of it. For a while it was the malign grasp of Brexit which was crushing the life out of British research or the resilience of American science in the face of the frenzied hostility of the great orange beast …” (more)
[University Ranking Watch, 13 June]
“Ulster University has been ranked inside the top 50 UK universities for the first time in the annual Complete University Guide – just 10 places behind Queen’s University, Belfast. After a third successive rise in the rankings, Ulster University has jumped 16 places from 60th to 44th out of 130 UK universities, its highest position in the league table’s 15-year history. Queen’s had dropped seven places though, falling from 27th to 34th overall …” (more)
[Mark Bain, Belfast Telegraph, 8 June]
“Several of Ireland’s top universities have slipped down the latest set of global rankings, while Trinity College Dublin has retained its status as Ireland’s top-ranked third-level institution, just outside the top 100. The QS (Quacquarelli Symonds) World University Rankings for 2022 show Trinity ranks 101st in the world – unchanged – while UCD climbed four places to 173rd …” (more)
[Carl O’Brien, Irish Times, 8 June]
“Academics reporting to be simultaneously affiliated with multiple organisations is a growing global phenomenon with significant implications for the usefulness and accuracy of research evaluations. Reporting on findings from a new study, Hanna Hottenrott, Michael E Rose and Cornelia Lawson find that much of the recent rise in multiple author affiliation can be linked to research assessment regimes introduced in the mid-2000s …” (more)
[LSE Impact Blog, 21 May]
“Lizzie Gadd argues that any commitment to responsible research assessment as outlined in DORA (Declaration on Research Assessment) and other such manifestos needs to include action on global university rankings. Highlighting four fundamental critiques of the way in which journal metrics and university rankings have been deployed in higher education, she proposes universities could unite around the principle of being ‘much more than their rank’ …” (more)
[LSE Impact Blog, 10 May]
“Global university rankings may be distorted by the business activities of the ranker, including selling consulting, analytics and other services to universities, according to a new study from the University of California (UC), Berkeley’s Center for Studies in Higher Education …” (more)
[Brendan O’Malley, World University News, 1 May]
“International rankings of universities raise numerous questions. How can you fairly compare universities that operate in different countries, with different sources of funds and different missions? Despite the obstacles, several players do such comparisons: Times Higher Education, US News & World Report and QS are three. And despite the concerns of many educators about rankings, they are very popular with international students (and many host countries) …” (more)
[Scott Jaschik, Inside Higher Ed, 27 April]
“The Times Higher Education Impact Rankings are the only global performance tables that assess universities against the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). We use carefully calibrated indicators to provide comprehensive and balanced comparison across four broad areas: research, stewardship, outreach and teaching. The 2021 Impact Rankings is the third edition and the overall ranking includes 1,115 universities from 94 countries/regions …” (more).
Irish rankings:
University College Cork – 8
University College Dublin – 22
University of Limerick – 50=
Trinity College Dublin – 57=
Dublin City University – 101-200
RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences – 101-200
Maynooth University – 201-300
Technological University Dublin – 201-300
Waterford Institute of Technology – 801-1000
“The latest Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings 2021 carried few surprises when it was released in September. The usual contestants led the rankings. Yet among these are some institutions, operating under totalitarian regimes, that do not match our expectation of what universities are about …” (more)
[Carsten A Holz, University World News, 17 April]
“University of Limerick has achieved the highest possible standard in the new QS Stars Rating System, the only university in Ireland to achieve this in 2021. UL joins an exclusive group of universities worldwide to receive the overall five-star status in the ranking, which is considered one of the most influential and credible ratings for universities globally …” (more)
[James Cox, BreakingNews.ie, 6 April]
“University rankings are imbued with great significance by university staff and leadership teams and the outcomes of their ranking systems can have significant material consequences. Drawing on a curious example from their own institution, Jelena Brankovic argues that taking rankings as proxies for quality or performance in a linear-causal fashion is a fundamentally ill-conceived way of understanding the value of a university, in particular, when publicly embraced by none other than scholars themselves …” (more)
[LSE Impact Blog, 22 March]
“Imagine you are a first-year student starting at one of the world’s top universities. Picture the lecture hall – as it was before the pandemic shifted classes online – well-worn from the generations that came before, or perhaps shiny and new, representing the promise of higher education in a dynamic, forward-looking society …” (more)
[Robert Quinn, Janika Spannagel and Ilyas Saliba, University World News, 11 March]
“Irish university courses in the arts, humanities and nursing rank highly on a global scale, despite an ‘extremely challenging’ landscape. The latest round of university rankings show the sector has increased its footings in the top-200 global subject rankings, despite budgetary constraints, according to the latest round of QS ranking …” (more)
[Jess Casey, Irish Examiner, 3 March]
“The Times Higher Education World University Rankings today announced that Trinity is the eight most international university in the world. College was in 17th place last year, and is the only Irish university on the list. This year marks a bounce of eight places …” (more)
[Emer Moreau, University Times, 28 January]
“The honour was awarded to Queen’s University by Octopus Ventures, which is a leading European Venture Capital Firm. Investing in the youth of today was never more important …” (more)
[Peter Donnelly, The Gown, 28 January]
“The IUA welcomes the publication of the Higher Education Research & Development Survey (HERD) by the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Leo Varadkar TD. This latest HERD survey clearly shows the need for a step change in research and innovation investment in Ireland given the fall in our research spend rankings from 14th to 23rd place in the OECD list …” (more)
[IUA, 20 January]
“Irish universities have dropped steadily in research spending rankings among OECD countries since 2008, according to a report published by the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment. In 2018, Ireland was ranked 23rd out of 37 countries, a fall of nine places since 2008 …” (more)
[Emer Moreau, University Times, 20 January]
