Ninth Level Ireland

“Trinity College Dublin is the highest new entrant on the FT’s European business schools ranking for the year. This marks the first time TCD has returned to the prestigious table since 2007. It is in 60th place in the ‘rankings of rankings’, a list covering a wide number of academic programmes including MBAs …” (more)

[Charlie Taylor, Irish Times, 9 December]

“Universities serve many different purposes depending on who one asks. Some of these are obvious; they analyse societal problems and offer solutions to them, they train people to be better, more critical citizens. Some are more disputable such as whether they should explicitly prepare people for careers …” (more)

[Garrett Kennedy, University Observer, 26 November]

“UCD academics are paid some of the highest salaries in the country as well as having greater pay packages than their international counterparts. This may be due to UCD being recently ranked low in international research tables and if the university provides higher salaries to researchers and academics this positioning can be improved …” (more)

[Adam O’Sullivan, College Tribune, 24 November]

“Trinity College Dublin is the top college in the country. The Sunday Times Good University Guide 2020 released today shows that Trinity has come ahead of University College Dublin and University College Cork, who are in joint second place …” (more)

[BreakingNews.ie, 3 November]

“The fall of Ireland’s top universities in international rankings has for a number of years teetered on the verge of becoming a national embarrassment. But perhaps even more embarrassing is that this week, two of the most powerful figures in Irish higher education took entirely antithetical stances on how to tackle the problem …” (more)

[University Times, 28 October]

“Recently there has been some interest in ranking higher education systems in addition to institutions or departments. See here and here. But both of these efforts, from Universitas 21 and QS, rank only 50 countries …” (more)

[University Ranking Watch, 26 October]

“Provost Patrick Prendergast has called for the introduction of a national strategy on university rankings, after Trinity’s persistent falls in both the Times Higher Education and QS rankings in recent years …” (more)

[Donal MacNamee, University Times, 21 October]

“Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail): To ask the Minister for Education and Skills his plans to develop a strategy to address the falling university rankings …” (more)

[Dáil written answers, 17 October]

“Trinity’s Fellows are divided over an idea mooted by Provost Patrick Prendergast that could see the number of Irish students admitted by the College fall dramatically in the coming years, with some rejecting it for ‘moral reasons’ while others argue it is ‘only option available’ to a College in rankings freefall …” (more)

[Donal MacNamee, University Times, 16 October]

“The average Trinity student will work a part time job during the college year and, when hitting a bout of bad mental health, might run into lengthy waiting periods to see a counsellor or psychiatrist with College mental health services. If they’re from outside Dublin, they are paying on average €12,495 per year (including rent) to attend college in the single most expensive city in the eurozone …” (more)

[Adam McQuillan, Trinity News, 8 October]

“In the public sector, there is only ever one solution to problems, and that is to call for more funding. Sadly, Irish universities are no different. Two stories last week illustrate the tendency. The first revealed that Trinity College in Dublin is considering reducing the number of Irish students who can attend in future unless the Government provides more resources …” (more)

[Eilis O’Hanlon, Independent, 6 October]

“Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail): To ask the Minister for Education and Skills his views on whether education is key to maintaining competitiveness here; and his further views on the continuing falling in the rankings by universities here in the university league …” (more)

[Dáil written answers, 1 October]

“Provost Patrick Prendergast has warned that Trinity may need to reduce the number of students it admits in the next five years, arguing that reducing the staff–student ratio is crucial if the College is to arrest slides in university rankings. Speaking today on the Seán O’Rourke show on RTÉ Radio 1, Prendergast said …” (more)

[Donal MacNamee, University News, 2 October]

“The Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, has defended his government’s record on investment in third-level institutions in response to a question about Trinity’s fall in global rankings. The Taoiseach made his comments yesterday whilst on a visit to the United Nations in New York. When asked about Trinity’s falling position in the rankings, he claimed there has been a ‘substantial injection of cash into our universities’ …” (more)

[Shannon Connolly, Trinity News, 27 September]

“Global rankings, especially THE‘s, have been very useful to British universities, at least to those sitting at the apex of the system. If a Russell Group university falls in the rankings then it is the fault of impending Brexit and/or the terrible austerity inflicted on the nation’s research prowess. If it rises then this is cause for congratulation but with a hint of foreboding …” (more)

[University Ranking Watch, 26 September]

“There are many complaints that we might make about university rankings. Mostly these fall into two categories. The first is that they simply reinforce existing power structures, privileging western, english-speaking universities and maintaining an exclusive club, which is impossible to break into and self-perpetuating …” (more)

[Cameron Neylon, Wonkhe, 25 September]

“Students are being used as pawns in a university’s row with the Government over the effect of insufficient funding on international rankings, the Union of Students in Ireland (USI) has claimed. USI president Lorna Fitzpatrick said third-level education is underfunded and colleges are forced to compete with each other for project-based funding …” (more)

[Marie O’Halloran, Irish Times, 23 September]

“Hundreds of people here and overseas have been asking me about Trinity College Dublin’s fall this month in the Times Higher Education world university rankings. Students and staff, potential students, alumni, employers, industry, politicians and overseas universities. Everybody wants to know how Trinity, of all places, could have suffered the worst fall among any of the world’s individually ranked universities …” (more)

[Patrick Prendergast, Irish Times, 23 September]

“The provost, Patrick Prendergast, has said that he is now in favour of an ‘income-contingent student loan scheme’ as his preferred option proposed in the Cassells report to plug the gap in third-level education funding. The provost made this announcement in an interview with the Sunday Business Post where he also warned that Trinity may have to cut student numbers to improve its position in the global rankings …” (more)

[Finn Purdy, Trinity News, 22 September]

“Queen’s University remains the best university in Northern Ireland, according to an influential list. It has climbed three places to stay within the top 40 in The Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2020. Ulster University has also climbed in the national rankings to joint 58th place …” (more)

[Gillian Halliday, Belfast Telegraph, 20 September]