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Courses
Courses
Choosing a course is one of the most important decisions you'll ever make! View our courses and see what our students and lecturers have to say about the courses you are interested in at the links below.
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University Life
University Life
Each year more than 4,000 choose NUI Galway as their University of choice. Find out what life at NUI Galway is all about here.
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About NUI Galway
About NUI Galway
Since 1845, NUI Galway has been sharing the highest quality teaching and research with Ireland and the world. Find out what makes our University so special – from our distinguished history to the latest news and campus developments.
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Colleges & Schools
Colleges & Schools
NUI Galway has earned international recognition as a research-led university with a commitment to top quality teaching across a range of key areas of expertise.
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Research & Innovation
Research & Innovation
NUI Galway’s vibrant research community take on some of the most pressing challenges of our times.
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Business & Industry
Guiding Breakthrough Research at NUI Galway
We explore and facilitate commercial opportunities for the research community at NUI Galway, as well as facilitating industry partnership.
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Alumni, Friends & Supporters
Alumni, Friends & Supporters
There are over 90,000 NUI Galway graduates Worldwide, connect with us and tap into the online community.
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Community Engagement
Community Engagement
At NUI Galway, we believe that the best learning takes place when you apply what you learn in a real world context. That's why many of our courses include work placements or community projects.
QS Overall Rankings
QS Overall Rankings
The QS World University Rankings is an annual publication of university rankings by Quacquarelli Symonds(QS). In 2020, the QS published their 17th edition of the QS World University Ranking Results 2020/21. NUI Galway achieved its highest rank ever in this edition of the ranking achieving a rank of 238th in the world.
Previously known as THE-QS World University Rankings, the publisher had collaborated with Times Higher Education magazine (THE) to publish its international league tables from 2004 to 2009 before both started to announce their own versions. QS then chose to still use the pre-existing methodology while THE adopted a new one.
The QS World University Rankings ranked over 1000 universities from over 80 countries. The rankings are based on opinions of over 100,000 individuals in the higher education space regarding teaching and research quality at the world’s universities and almost 50,000 employer responses as well as 13 million research papers and 66 million citations. The QS introduced faculty area normalisation in 2015 to ensure that institutions specialising in Life Sciences and Natural Sciences were not unduly advantaged. See more about the QS Methodology used in the rankings here.
Over the years, NUI Galway has steadily risen in the QS World University Ranking and in 2017, reached a rank into the top 250 band, reaching a rank of 243 and made it to the top 1% of the universities in the world. The 2018/19 QS Ranking results reflected poorly for Irish Universities and NUI Galway has fallen slightly to a rank of 260 and 259 in the rankings published in 2019. However once again in 2020 NUI Galway took a huge leap of 21 places to a rank of 238 in the rankings published in QS World University Ranking Results 2020/21. Within the World Ranking sector, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is ranked first while Stanford University lies second, Harvard University lies 3rd and the University of Oxford lies in 4th position.
NUI Galway's Ranking result 2011-2020.
QS Rankings
NUI Galway jumped 21 places in the QS (Quacquarelli Symonds) 2020 World University Ranking, reaching it's highest rank ever of 238th in the world, published 10th June 2020. This ranking confirms its position among the world’s elite educational institutions, placing it in the top 1% of universities in the world. Since 2014, NUI Galway has moved up 42 places, having improved its ranking in 8 of the previous 9 years. NUI Galway continues to perform strongly in its International scores, reflecting the welcoming and vibrant population of Galway City. In particular, this year, NUI Galway has improved substantively with regard to its academic and employer reputation internationally.
Over the years, NUI Galway has steadily risen in the QS World University Ranking and in 2017, reached a rank of 243 and made it to the top 1% of the universities in the world. The 2018/19 QS Ranking results reflected poorly for Irish Universities and NUI Galway has fallen slightly to a rank of 260, however, the 2019/20, QS Ranking Results showed NUI Galway to have risen one place to 259th position. Within the World Ranking sector, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is ranked first while Stanford University lies second, Harvard University lies 3rd and the University of Oxford lies in 4th position.
Table 1:See Ranking Results in Irish Universities below
Table 2: See Top 20 Ranked Institutions in the World
QS Metrics
The QS overall university ranking uses six metrics in total.
Two of the metrics (Academic Reputation and Employer Reputation) are based on surveys conducted by the QS. These surveys are carried out on a population of over 100,000 academics and almost 50,000 employers. See more details on how the QS calculates these surveys and the other core metrics used below.
- Academic Reputation
- Employer Reputation
- International Staff and Students
- Citations
- Staff/Student Ratio
Table 2: The QS Rankings Metrics
QS Links
See press releases relating to the QS ranking results:
2019/2020 News Releases
- Read NUI Galway's news archive on the University Rankings.
- Read Irish Times article, 10th June 2020
- 2019/20 QS World Ranking Results
2018/2019 News Releases
2017 News Releases
- The Irish Time press release QS Ranking Results 08/06/2017
- The Irish Independent press release QS Ranking Results 08/06/2017
- Listen to President Jim Browne's interview on Today FM, 08/06/2017
2016 News Releases
- Irish Times press release, QS ranking results, 06/09/2016
- Listen to President Jim Browne's interview on RTE 1, 09/06/16
More information:
More on NUI Galway's scoring in the QS World Ranking
See more details on NUI Galway's scoring in the QS World Ranking
News
4th November 2020
NUI Galway achieved runner-up position for the second year in a row in the Sunday Times Good University Guide, published November 2020.
2nd September 2020
NUI Galway is ranked in the 301-350 band in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings.
10th June 2020
NUI Galway rises 21 places in QS World University Rankings, reaching a rank of 238th in the world.
22nd April 2020
NUI Galway achieves a world rank of 68th out of 767 Institutions in the Times Higher Education World Impact Rankings This ranking is based on how each university is contributing to the United Nations 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In addition, NUI Galway achieved a rank of 10th in the world for the SDG14: Life Below Water.
4th March 2020
QS Subject Ranking improve for NUI Galway gaining a rank in 19 subjects this year compared with 17 last year.