Trinity has been ranked 87th in the world by Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) 2025 World University Rankings.
Down six places since last year, College has maintained a top-100 position for the third consecutive year.
Despite its high overall ranking, Trinity was ranked just 668th for student-staff ratios, its worst performance by far across nine separate categories.
The rankings compare 1,503 universities across the globe. Trinity performed well on academic reputation and international student numbers, placed at 93rd and 133rd respectively.
Its only improvement in any category was employer reputation, a notable jump from 238th to 195th in the world.
Trinity’s best performance was in employment outcomes at 83rd in the world, down from 70th last year.
College saw a drop of over 100 places for sustainability, from 173rd to 276th.
Provost Linda Doyle used the opportunity to once again take aim at government underfunding of higher education, saying that government has allowed investment in education and research “to take a back seat”, making Trinity’s high ranking “unsustainable”.
“The €307 million annual funding gap in the Higher Education sector, identified by government in May 2022, has not yet been filled.”
“Ireland spends 1.1% of GDP on research – never having reached the long-promised 2% of GDP.” she continued.
Dean of Research Professor Sinéad Ryan added that the ranking, while welcome, is “delicate”.
“Trinity’s researchers continue to produce work of the highest standard despite the chronic underfunding of the national system, the absence of a national research infrastructure strategy and R&D funding across all disciplines that is far below our international peers.”
“Imagine what we could do in a properly resourced system,” Ryan said.
Five other Irish universities improved their positions on the rankings, with University College Dublin (UCD) seeing the largest jump, from 171st to 126th.
In November, Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU) called for College to cut ties with university rankings systems following Utrecht University’s decision to opt out of the Times Higher Education (THE) World University Ranking 2024.
In an email sent to Provost Linda Doyle, TCDSU President László Molnárfi said university rankings prompt unnecessary academic competition, misalignment of values and academic integrity and “may also cause social exclusion and exclusionary managerialism by numbers”.
