[dropcap]DCU[/dropcap] has retained its position in the QS Top 50 Under 50 league table of top young universities in the world. It ranked 44th place this year, up from 46th place last year, and is the only Irish university or institution to appear on the list.
The QS Top 50 Under 50 ranks universities established in the past 50 years on a variety of fields including: academic reputation, employer reputation, faculty-student radio, research publications per academic staff, citations per paper, and the international nature of the university (measured in terms of staff and students).
DCU has featured every year in the QS Top 50 Under 50 since its inception in 2012.
Professor Brian MacCraith, President of DCU, said the university is very pleased to not only have retained its presence in the list of the world’s top young universities, but at the same time to have improved on last year’s position.
“This is very good news for the university which will help strengthen our international engagement,” he said.
“Congratulations and thank you to all our staff and students who have contributed so much in recent years to enable us achieve this important global recognition.”
Similarly, DCU also secured a position in the Times Higher Education list of top 100 universities in the world less than 50 years old in April, ranked in 76th place.
Although this week’s rise in university rankings marks a progressive achievement for DCU, it remained one of seven Irish universities to fall in the QS World University Rankings published in early September, falling from 353rd to 380th place.
“The good side of things, Irish Universities remain in the top 3% in the world, but certainly while international attention is paid to rankings, Irish institutions have not been performing as well as in the past,” Malcolm Byrne, Head of Communications for the Higher Education Authority (HEA) said.
“Rankings only measure certain things and they shouldn’t be the only basis in which people make judgements on higher education institutions,” Byrne added.
Nanyang Technology University Singapore ranked top of the list, while the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology came in second place and KAIST – Korea Advanced Institute of Science & Technology came in third.
Hayley Halpin
Leave a Reply