Trinity has been placed joint 40th in the world in terms of its “international outlook” by Times Higher Education, in a ranking which takes into account the proportion of international staff, students and global research collaborations.
Published this morning, the list sees Trinity move up four places from last year, when it was ranked 44th, but it is still ten places behind 2014, when it was ranked 30th in the world. All of Ireland’s seven universities, in addition to the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, feature in the top 200.
The rankings are based on the “international outlook” indicator from Times Higher Education’s World University Rankings, and, while the scores for all universities in the ranking have trended upwards, Trinity’s score in this indicator has gone up from 83.9 to 90.5 compared to last year. Trinity was ranked 160th in the world overall – a fall of 22 places – in the university rankings, which were released in September.
In terms of research collaborations, the indicator measures the number of research papers published by academics in the university with at least one co-author from another country.
In recent years, College has placed an increased emphasis on promoting itself globally and attracting international students, with its 2014–19 Strategic Plan stressing the need to “attract students of the highest calibre from all continents”. In November, the Provost’s annual review placed particular emphasis on his goal to make Trinity a university of “global consequence”, and revealed that the number of non-EU students in Trinity has risen by almost 20 per cent in just two years. Since 2013, there has been a 30 per cent increase in students originating from Asia, with the report highlighting how the university’s global relations strategy aims to nurture a “multicultural, cosmopolitan campus” while “enhancing research and the Trinity Education through internationalisation”.
International students, however, have been seen as a way to offset the deficit in state funding since the beginning of the economic crisis, with fees for non-EU students due to rise by another three per cent next year. This follows last year’s three per cent increase, and a five per cent increase the previous year.
Trinity is ranked joint 40th with the University of British Columbia in Canada and the University of Auckland in New Zealand. The Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland is placed 46th, while University College Dublin places only 74th. Dublin City University, National University of Ireland, Galway and the University of Limerick all hover around the 140 mark, while Maynooth University and University College Cork are placed 145th and 146th respectively. Qatar University tops the rankings.
