In the latest round of QS World University Rankings by Subject, based on data compiled by the organisation between 2012 and 2016, Trinity has seen its top 100 rank in 14 subject fields fall outside of the world’s top 100.
Trinity managed to secure only two places for individual subjects in the world’s top 100. Nursing at Trinity was placed at 36th, representing its one and only top 50 placing in the current set of rankings, as English language and literature fell outside the top 50 from 32nd to 51st.
Speaking to The University Times, Prof Catherine Comiskey, Head of Trinity’s School of Nursing and Midwifery, expressed her delight at the news: “We’re delighted, it has recognised the contribution of the entire staff.”
“Everyone in the school is working towards making it a better place”, Comiskey added.
Comiskey praised the work done by the staff as instrumental in this: “There is such strong leadership in the school, I really cannot say enough about the staff.”
However some subjects dropped a dramatic 100 places from 51st to 151st, including history, law and legal studies, chemistry, pharmacy and pharmacology, and material sciences, while physics and astronomy, and computer science and information systems both fell 100 places from 101st to 201st.
The most shocking falls out of the top 100 came from education and training, and sociology, both of whom dropped 200 places from 51st in their subjects down to 251st.
Comiskey claims also that as well as improving teaching practises, the school have placed an emphasis also on the student experience: “It’s also about the student experience, we don’t always get it right but we listen to what [students] have to say.”
An emphasis has also been placed on making Trinity’s School of Nursing and Midwifery one of global consequence and standing. An effort has also been made to reach out to prospective students according to Comiskey saying that they have “really taken” Trinity’s desire to be a university of global consequence “on board”.
Formerly, Trinity held 16 top 100 places according to the last report by QS World University Rankings. These included top positions for many of Trinity’s subject fields, spanning each of the three faculties.
Trinity also saw itself overtaken by University College Dublin (UCD) who achieved the highest ranking in a particular subject among any Irish university. Veterinary medicine at UCD was placed 29th while English language and literature rose to 45th in the table.
UCD also managed to secure 13 top 100 placings, the highest number of any Irish university. The new subject rankings also represented a win for some of Ireland’s other universities, with NUI Galway (NUIG) securing one top 100 placing while University College Cork (UCC) secured two.
Trinity’s slide though had major implications for the overall success for Irish universities. The total number of top 100 placings for Irish universities fell from 30 to 18.
