Kayle Crosson | Senior Staff Writer
Both Trinity College Dublin and University College Dublin have both fallen in global university rankings, according to a report released this week by Times Higher Education. TCD has fallen a further nine places down the list to 138th for the 2014/2015 rankings, as it was previously ranked at 129th for the 2013/2014 academic year. UCD has slipped substantially in the Times Higher Education rankings, falling from a previous 161st place to the 226th to the 250th bracket.
These declines have been observed to represent a “tipping point” for the future direction of Irish higher education, according to Tom Boland, the chief executive of the Higher Education Authority. Mr. Boland further elaborated on the consequences of this slip in rankings for Ireland’s competitiveness in university education on a global playing field, “The global university rankings, for all their flaws, reflect international perceptions and we should take note of concerns that our universities are not in a position to compete”.
Trinity College Dublin has seen a notable decline in its Times Higher Education ranking, falling from 43rd internationally in 2009 to 76th the following year in 2010. University College Dublin’s recent rankings in the past years has been noted to be a sharper decline, falling from 89th in 2009 to 161st last year. UCD president, Professor Andrew Deeks, described the results as being “puzzling”, in relation to the QS world ranking that was released last month which had UCD maintaining a 139th place.
However, the news was not all negative regarding Irish universities, as Galway jumped forward to the 3rd best university in Ireland, passing out University College Cork to the 251st-275th bracket. UCC remained unchanged in its ranking of 276th – 300th, whilst Royal College of Surgeons Ireland entered the top 400 at the 351st – 400th bracket.
These rankings for the 2014/2015 academic year have renewed calls to substantial budgetary cuts to higher education, however, according to some academics, this would severely damage Irish universities’ chances of jumping to higher international rankings.
Trinity’s decline has today been attributed to a lack of funding in comparison to other top 200 universities, as Dean of Research Vinny Cahill has highlighted, making it difficult for Trinity to compete on a global level: “Our universities are sliding because we can’t compete on funding. On a per academic basis, Trinity’s annual budget is 45 percent lower than that of the average top 200 university”.
