Trinity College Dublin is ranked 49th in the World by Times Higher Education-QS League Tables

Posted on: 09 October 2008

Trinity College Dublin has broken into the world’s top 50 universities having been ranked  49th place in the top world universities by the Times Higher Education-QS World University Rankings just published. It has also been ranked 13th place in Europe. Trinity is the only Irish university to be placed within the top 100 world universities and this is the first time an Irish third level institution has made it to the landmark world’s top 50. This is the highest ranking the College has ever achieved, up four places on last year’s ranking of 53.

Commenting on the significance of the achievement, TCD Provost, Dr John Hegarty said: “It is very important that Trinity is for the first time ranked among the top 50 universities in the world. In 2003 we set ourselves a challenge to join the world’s top 50 grouping. While it seemed a major challenge then, it is very satisfying that within a few short years we have achieved that goal. This success has been achieved in the context of a very competitive international environment against much better-resourced world-leading universities”.

“I believe it is absolutely critical for Ireland, especially in this knowledge-driven age, to have more universities in the front rank. From an economic perspective, it is important to note that we have been ranked in the top 43 universities by the employer survey. This sends a clear message regarding the relevance of our education and training programmes at undergraduate and postgraduate level to the global workplace.  It is our hope and intention to maintain and further improve on that position”.

“However, this is becoming increasingly difficult in a rapidly deteriorating funding climate. The fact that Trinity is ranked so highly, relative to the resources available is a reflection of the very high calibre of our students, the excellence of our research and the strong culture amongst our academic, administrative and support staff to achieve and perform beyond the norm. The challenge will be to sustain our top ranking position and the quality for which we are renowned with increasingly deficient levels of funding.”

Trinity College is a top ranking university in all of the Times Higher Education-QS World University Rankings’  five discipline categories:  Arts & Humanities (32), Social Sciences (59), Natural Sciences (66), Life Sciences & Biomedicine (97), Engineering & IT (135).