Irish universities lagging behind in global rankings
Saturday November 07 2009
IRISH universities still lag behind the world's best, according to the latest international league table.
No Irish third-level institution has broken into the top 200 worldwide in the the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU).
The best Irish placing went to Trinity College, Dublin, which is ranked in bands covering 201st-302nd in the world, and 80-125th in Europe.
University College, Dublin (UCD), and University College, Cork (UCC), also feature on the list, placed between 303rd-401st worldwide, and 126th-170th in Europe. UCC had improved its placing last year.
No Irish university features in tables of the top 100 by discipline or subject -- such as science, engineering, medicine, social science, maths, physics, chemistry, computer science and economics/business.
British universities in the top 100 include Sheffield, Manchester, Edinburgh, Nottingham, while others in Europe include Bonn and Aarhus, Utrecht, Helsinki and Copenhagen.
The ARWU is an influential ranking of research universities and has been used as a starting point for identifying strengths and weaknesses as well as facilitating reform. It ranks more than 1,000 universities every year using a range of indicators, including the number of alumni and staff winning Nobel prizes, the number of highly cited researchers and number of articles published.
The rankings have come in for criticism because of the use of Nobel Prize wins, which often date back many years .
The list is dominated by American colleges, while Britain's Cambridge and Oxford are the only two in Europe to feature in the world's top 10.
Caution
Dr Hugh Brady, president of UCD, said all ranking systems should be viewed with caution. None could come close to capturing the full contribution of UCD in such areas as the arts, politics, sport and business.
"Having said that, they do influence international students and staff when considering where to study and teach and the reputation of a region's universities is cited as one of the top 10 factors influencing multinational firms as they choose where to locate".
He said the ARWU, which is published by the Shanghai Jiao Tong University, was particularly narrow and focused on publications and citations in a limited number of academic disciplines. It does not take into account reputation among academic peers or employers.
Irish universities have been undergoing a modernisation process in recent years, and are facing new challenges in light of Government cuts in funding and staff, while student numbers are growing.
Speaking at the UCD Foundation Day ceremony last night, Dr Brady said that this had been one of the most challenging years for Ireland and the Irish universities in recent history.
He paid tribute to the entire university sector for "delivering more for less" and said they were committed to playing their part in supporting the national effort to restore and advance the economy of this country.
TCD received a boost recently on another league table when it moved up to 43rd place in the Times Higher Education-QS World University rankings, having entered the top 50 worldwide for the first time in 2008.
- Katherine Donnelly
Irish Independent
