UCD overtakes Trinity in QS University subject rankings

The rankings follow a consistent downwards trend of Irish universities

Trinity’s ranking has fallen in every single category this year in new subject rankings released by QS World University Rankings. The total number of Trinity subjects ranking in the top 100 in the world has decreased from 16 to 2 since last year, with Nursing in 36th place and English language and literature in 51st.

Despite the drop, Trinity remains in the top 300 for all subjects except mathematics, with most subjects in the top 200. In the overall rankings for 2016/17 announced last September, Trinity dropped to 98th place to 78th as part of a consistent downwards trend of Irish universities. No other Irish universities were in the overall top 100, despite UCD having 13 subjects in the top 100 subjects this year.

The subject rankings are based on scores of 4,438 universities over five years, from 2012 to 2016. They were created using a survey of academics and employers to measure the reputation of the university, as well as the impact and productivity of the faculty based on the number of times their work is cited. The overall ranking also takes into account student-to-faculty ratio, and the proportion of international staff and students.

Trinity’s decline follows a breach of QS rules in 2016 when the Dean of Research, John Boland, sent emails to encourage graduates and academics to partake in QS reputation surveys. QS said that it took action to “mitigate the influence of the substantial email campaign,” according to the Irish Independent.

The College Press Office did not return a request for comment when contacted by Trinity News.