Three Irish universities ranked among top 100 in Europe

Only three Irish universities made it into the top 100, with Trinity College Dublin in 31st place, University College Dublin in 71st place and University of Galway in 98th place. 

Three Irish universities have been ranked in the top 100 universities in Europe as new rankings for 2024 were released. 

Global higher education analysis company Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) published the results, which saw Trinity College Dublin (TCD) rank 31st, University College Dublin (UCD) in 71st place and University of Galway (UG) in 98th place. University College Cork (UCC) was just outside the top 100, being ranked 109th in Europe out of 690 institutions across 42 locations.

The rankings examine the universities against 12 indictors relating to the areas of Research & Discovery, Employability & Outcomes, Learning Experience, Global Engagement & Sustainability. 

It saw Irish universities "enjoy exceptional" employment outcomes, with two universities among Europe's top 20 for this indicator. TCD boasts the strongest career prospects, placing 13th while UCD also performs excellently, ranking 15th.

It also acknowledged that there was a high international faculty cohort and "outstanding levels" of sustainablility. UCC was ranked 21st in Europe for advancement of sustainability and 57th and 58th respectively for international faculty and outbound exchange opportunities for students. 

Ireland boasts 63% of its universities in the top 100 for Sustainability, the second-highest ratio in Europe among countries with five or more ranked universities, behind only Sweden.

TCD was ranked 30th in Europe for being one of the most-respected universities among academics. It also ranked 13th for strongest career prospects and 25th for most international faculty bodies in Europe. 

However, Ireland struggles in indicators related to research, including "output, quality and collaboration". 

"No Irish university is among Europe’s top 100 QS’ measure of research impact, Citations per Paper while only Trinity College Dublin places in the top 100 for cross-border collaboration and research production, placing 83rd for International Research Network and 73rd for Papers per Faculty," said a statement.

Out of the 690 institutions, University of Oxford (UK) was ranked first with the ETH Zurich - Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (Switzerland) in second and University of Cambridge (UK) in third place. 

The UK is the most represented country in the rankings, with 107 featured universities, followed by Turkey with 73 and Germany with 53. 

The overall rankings for Irish colleges is as follows: 

31	Trinity College Dublin, The University of Dublin
71	University College Dublin
98	University of Galway
109	University College Cork
152	Dublin City University
152	University of Limerick
286	Technological University Dublin
311	Maynooth University

UCC President John O'Halloran said he was "very pleased that the ongoing excellent work of our students, staff and alumni, continues to come through in the various ranking assessments. 

"It is particularly heartening that our work in the field of sustainability continues to be acknowledged independently as sector-leading.”

The overall top 10 for the 2024 rankings is:

1	University of Oxford	United Kingdom
2	ETH Zurich - Swiss Federal Institute of Technology	Switzerland
3	University of Cambridge	United Kingdom
4	Imperial College London	United Kingdom
5	UCL	United Kingdom
6	The University of Edinburgh	United Kingdom
7	Université PSL	France
8	The University of Manchester	United Kingdom
9	EPFL	Switzerland
10	King's College London	United Kingdom