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QS Overall Rankings

QS Overall Rankings

The QS World University Rankings is an annual publication of university rankings by Quacquarelli Symonds(QS). 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. 

In June 2021, the QS published their 18th edition of the QS World University Ranking Results 2021/22. NUI Galway achieved a rank of 258, falling just out of the top 250 band. The decline in rank compared to the previous year, where NUI Galway achieved its highest rank ever of 238th in the world is mainly due to the increase of our student numbers which impacted the staff-student ratio score. Within the World Ranking sector, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is ranked first while the University of Oxford lies second and Stanford University is in joint third place with the University of Cambridge.

The chart below shows NUI Galway has steadily risen in the QS World University Ranking and in 2017, reached a rank into the top 250 band (243 )and made it to the top 1%  of the universities in the world. Since 2017/2018 NUI Galway has fluctuated in and out of the top 250 band.  

NUI Galway's Ranking result 2011-2021

‌QS Results Line Chart 2011-2021

QS Results

In the QS World Ranking Results 2021/22 published 8th June 2021 NUI Galway fell just out of the top 250 band. Despite improvements in NUI Galway's Academic & Employer reputation scores, the increase in the student cohort impacted the staff-student ratio score. Within Ireland, NUI Galway retains its position of 3rd place while Trinity College Dublin retains the number one position and UCD lies in the number two position. Within the World Ranking sector, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is ranked first while the University of Oxford lies second and Stanford University is in joint third place with the University of Cambridge.
In last year's results, NUI Galway jumped 21 places in the QS (Quacquarelli Symonds) 2020/21 World University Ranking, reaching it's highest rank ever of 238th in the world,  published 10th June 2020  placing it in the top 1% of universities in the world. 

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 (243 )and made it to the top 1%  of the universities in the world. Since 2017/2018 NUI Galway has fluctuated in and out of the top 250 band.  

See NUI Galway's detailed breakdown of scores and historic data for the QS World Ranking.
 ‌QS League Table Sharepoint‌

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.

Table 2: The QS Rankings Metrics

QS Weighting



More on NUI Galway's scoring in the QS World Ranking

 

See more details on NUI Galway's scoring in the QS World Ranking.QS Detailed Metrics Logo‌