In the most recent global university rankings, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland’s leading third-level school, has fallen five positions to rank at 139th. Out of the nine Irish universities featured in the 2024 Times Higher Education World University Rankings, five experienced a decrease in ranking, three maintained their positions and Dublin City University was the only institution to secure an improvement.
University College Dublin can be found in the 201-250 band, while the category for the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) is 251-300. Following them are Dublin City University, University College Cork and University of Galway, all in the 351-400 bracket, with the latter falling from the category 301-350. Maynooth University and University of Limerick both also experienced a decline in their rankings, moving from the 401-500 category to the 501-600.
In the overall rankings, the University of Oxford secured the top spot for the ninth consecutive year, with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University trailing in second and third, respectively. They were followed by Princeton University and the University of Cambridge, with Stanford University dropping from second to sixth.
Known to many as one of the “big three” alongside QS and Shanghai’s Academic Ranking of World Universities, the Times Higher Education ranking still holds substantial influence worldwide, affecting reputation, research and student decisions, in spite of criticism that suggests it does not accurately measure university performance and neglects important factors such as the quality of teaching and learning.
Finally, there was a decline in European representation within the world’s top 200 universities, with the current count being 91; an decrease of eight from 99 in 2019. A number of those remaining in the top 200 have also seen a decline.
Phil Baty, the Chief Global Affairs Officer at Times Higher Education, made it clear that the contest for rankings among European universities is intensifying on a yearly basis. This is predominantly due to the rising competition from Asian educational institutions, notably from Chinese mainland and South Korea, who are swiftly ascending in the ranks. Baty noted that as more universities join in each passing year, just maintaining a current rank in the listings is becoming an increasingly challenging task. Therefore, if European universities aspire to keep their spots in the upper tiers of these rankings, they must step up their efforts considerably.