Bad news for Irish universities in world rankings

  Source: National Development Finance Agency

In the latest QS World University rankings Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT) has fallen from between 551-600th in 2014 to 601-650th in 2015, contributing to a poor year for most third level Irish institutions.

The Liberties-based college, soon to be a university, is in auspicious company however with Trinity College Dublin (TCD) and University College Dublin (UCD) also tumbling down the table with the former falling from 71st to 78th and the latter 139th to 154th.

Another major Irish third level institution fell victim to a poor ranking with University College Cork now sitting in 233rd place, compared to their 230th ranking last year.

It wasn’t all bad news for the Irish education system however, with four major colleges and universities enjoying gains in the rankings. 

The individual budget of the respected institutions plays a huge part in how a university is ranked, with all seven Irish universities having a combined revenue of €1.7 billion.

This is in stark contrast to those at the top of the list with Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the top ranked university, having a staggering revenue of €2.76 billion.

Stanford, Harvard and Cambridge had a combined revenue of €10.52 billion.

This may be of concern to the top ranked officials in Irish education as those Irish students who seek to be associated with the most creative and advanced educational institutions will have to turn to foreign pastures in order to fulfil their ambitions.

It could also have an effect on those seeking to come to Ireland for an education, as foreign governments are less likely to cover the costs of sending students to the lower ranked universities.

John J. Boland, the Dean and Vice-President for Research at TCD gave his summary of the situation by saying, ‘To have our top university ranked 78th is not good enough.’

DIT’s move to Grangegorman could see a significant improvement in future rankings with a bigger campus and more students but for now the IT and the other Irish universities have a long way to go before they reach the truly elite level of third level education institutions