Trinity rises to 61st place in QS World University Rankings 2013

Posted on: 10 September 2013

Trinity College Dublin has climbed six places this year to 61st position in the QS World University Rankings 2013 announced today.

The move consolidates Trinity’s position as Ireland’s highest ranked university and among the world’s leading higher education institutions.

The Provost of Trinity, Dr Patrick Prendergast, said the rankings place the university among the best in the world – and he urged the Government to co-invest with Trinity to secure Ireland’s future as an economy and society.

‘Trinity, now in our fifth century of intellectual endeavour, is a research-led university, generating cutting-edge outputs whose extraordinary national and international impact is acknowledged by these latest rankings. This year’s score for our research is our highest ever. Our campus companies and technology transfers emerge from the research we conduct. Trinity now accounts for one-fifth of all spin-out companies from Irish higher education institutions, helping to turn Ireland into an innovation-intensive, high-productivity economy. Trinity is at the heart of the national push to attract talent to Ireland, nurture existing talent, and turn good ideas into sustainable jobs,’ said Dr Prendergast.

The QS World University Rankings 2013 show Trinity also scored well on teaching quality.

‘Our scores for student-staff ratio and graduate employability also improved this year, attesting strongly to the quality of a Trinity education which places research-led teaching and student-centred learning at the heart of our academic mission. We are building support among higher education institutions across the world, reflected in our improved score for academic reputation, and this is key to Trinity’s drive to become a university of global consequence,’ said Dr Prendergast.

QS’ individual subject rankings showed significant increases for Trinity in Arts and Humanities; Natural Sciences, Social Sciences and Management; Engineering and Technology; and Life Sciences and Medicine. This year’s subject rankings have used a new methodology of academic reputation, employer reputation, as well as research impact.

Despite Trinity’s rankings jump, the operating environment for higher education institutions in Ireland remains very challenging, with Government investment declining when student numbers are rising.

‘To secure Ireland’s economic recovery, and to build a stronger society, we need to invest in higher education where the conditions for new enterprise and participatory citizenship are forged and then taken out to the world by our graduates. Universities work best when Government works together with them in the economic and social advance of a country. This mutually enabling partnership is in danger of failing if fewer public resources are invested in the system and the brake on recruitment, through the Employment Control Framework, is allowed to persist.

‘Ireland’s investment in higher education is already well below par internationally. With the youngest demographic in Europe, Ireland is ideally placed to create a new generation of job creators, workers and engaged citizens whose ambitions are raised by their experience in university. The question for the Government ahead of next month’s Budget should not be whether we can afford to increase investment in higher education. The question is whether we can afford not to,’ said Dr Prendergast.