The Times Higher Education World University Rankings today announced that Trinity is the eighth-most international university in the world.
College was in 17th place last year, and is the only Irish university on the list. This year marks a bounce of eight places.
The University of Oxford, Imperial College London and the University of Cambridge were among those ahead of Trinity in the rankings. The University of Hong Kong topped the list.
The rankings were compiled based on institutions’ international student score, international staff score, international co-authorship score and international reputation metrics collected for the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2021.
Trinity jumped nine places from 164th to 155th in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings, securing its status as Ireland’s top university for another year.
The bounce in rankings will come as a relief for College, after Trinity dropped 44 places in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings last year.
In a press statement about the bounce, Dean of Research Linda Doyle said: “We are delighted to see Trinity College Dublin improving its position in this global metric.”
“Excellence in research lies at the heart of our identity as a university and has a fundamental influence on our teaching.”
“This speaks to the quality of our researchers, who are excelling in difficult times in which funding is harder to come by than ever”, she added.
The Times Higher Education World University Rankings analyses over 1,250 universities with 13 separate indicators grouped into five categories: teaching, research, citations, international mix and industry income.
Trinity has had a complicated relationship with rankings over the past few years, both publicly dismissing their importance and putting work into improving their standing.
In 2018, Provost Patrick Prendergast dismissed rankings as “reductive” and said that they did not acknowledge the College’s recent achievements and initiatives.
In his final State of the College Address, he said: “I believe we are under-ranked – it’s taking time for the rankings to catch up with all we’ve done.”
