Most Irish universities see decline in global rankings

Most Irish universities have dropped in the latest global rankings despite increases in many of their overall scores.

The latest table from QS, one of the most-cited world ranking systems, show Trinity College Dublin as the only one of our seven universities in the top 100. At 71st, it dropped from 61st last year, but said the fall is against a backdrop of upward moves by universities in Asia-Pacific countries.

This may be supported by the fact that Trinity’s score actually increased, from 75.1 to 75.3. So too did the score of University College Dublin (UCD), from 61.2 to 62.6, keeping it in 139th.

Trinity dean of research Professor Vinny Cahill said improved scores no longer guarantee a higher ranking due to global competition, our challenging economic environment, and reduced government investment.

“A world class university requires resourcing at internationally competitive levels and for Trinity to sustain its position and increase further worldwide requires adequate investment in the university sector,” he said.

The top 10 in the 2014 QS World University Rankings are all US and UK colleges, Massachusetts Institute of Technology keeping first place, Cambridge and Imperial College London in joint-second, and Harvard dropping two to fourth.

University College Cork fell from 210th to 230th, with its overall score falling from 50.6 to 49.5.

A spokesperson said Irish falls of recent years reflect the funding cuts and other challenges facing the sector, but pointed out that UCC has gained places under the research reputation and international student rankings.

The only one of eight ranked Irish colleges to improve was NUI Galway, up four to 280th with a score of 43.6, up from 41.5 in 2013. Dublin City University is ranked 366th, down from 349th in 2013, despite improving its score from 36.8 to 37.

University of Limerick, with a score of 28.7, remains in the 501-550 banding at 523rd. But Dublin Institute of Technology fell out of that band to 551-600, ranked 558th with a 26.9 score.

Maynooth University drops into the 601-650 banding, and scored 24.1 this year, placing it in 628th.

According to QS, all eight Irish institutions’ scores dropped for proportions of international academics on staff, but there were some positive indicators.

“The highest indicators across the board for Irish institutions are those of student faculty ratio and international students, indicating potential improvement in the future at the student level,” it said.

Trinity beat other Irish universities in half of the six key categories, but UCD had the best ranking for international students (56th) and employer reputation (129th). NUI Galway’s 234th ranking in faculty-student ratios is Ireland’s highest, and University of Limerick is in the top 100 with Trinity for international faculty members, at 86th.

The downward ranking trends may fuel more debate on how to properly fund higher education, a question previous education minister Ruairi Quinn asked to be examined by an expert group. It will report to his successor Jan O’Sullivan at the end of next year. While universities say the Government must drastically improve public funding or introduce greater levels of student contribution, in order to allow the system cope with huge growth in student numbers, reforms across the higher education sector are being pushed by the Department of Education to improve efficiencies with existing resources.