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Sunday Times Rankings

NUI Galway has been named the University of the Year in the Sunday Times Good University Guide, published November 2021.  The review panel highlighted our community-based ethos and commended our humanitarian and compassionate approach to alleviating the worse impacts of Covid-19.  This recognition reflects our strategy launched just before Covid, where we committed ourselves to the public good, reflecting the sense at NUI Galway of being in and for our community, the commitment to our place by looking beyond our place with curiosity and ambition.  NUI Galway lies in fifth position this year, while TCD takes the first spot. See the Sunday Times League Table here.

In the previous year 2020,  NUI Galway achieved runner-up position for the second year in a row.  Alongside the three outright wins by NUI Galway over the past recent years it makes NUI Galway the second most successful university in the annual awards over the past 19 years.

In 2019, NUI Galway achieved the runner-up for the University of the Year award in the new edition of The Sunday Times Good University Guide. NUI Galway impressed the judges this year with a strong research performance, allied to significant support for student entrepreneurship and business start-ups. Five Galway academics are among the top 1% of researchers whose work was most cited in the world in 2018, and grants have been secured for pioneering work on the treatment of diabetes and multiple sclerosis. The university attracted more than €77m last year in non-capital expenditure research income. The opening of the new 429-bed Goldcrest student village in February further enhanced student facilities at NUI Galway, which should help build on a strong performance in the annual Irish Survey of Student Engagement in future years.”

In 2018, NUI Galway dropped one place to rank number 5 in the Sunday Times league table, published in November The University of Limerick  (UL) overtook NUI Galway ranked in fourth position on the league table, UL  also achieved University of the year status. A more recent metric added in the league table published in 2018 is the measurement of Students' Satisfaction with the institution they are attending. This information is captured through the Irish Survey of Student Engagement (ISSE) which is carried out on students in Irish Institutions March/April annually. There is a broad range of questions asked which determine the students' experience and level of engagement at their institution.  In addition to this metric been added, it is given a 2.5 times weighting compared to all the other metrics (with the exception of the Leaving Cert CAO points which has a 1.5 times weighting), NUI Galway achieved 3rd place in the Student Satisfaction metric while NUI Maynooth took 2nd place and the University of Limerick took first place. The significant drop in this years league table was the CAO median points, where NUI Galway dropped from a rank of 3 to a rank of 6 on the league table.NUI Galway also achieved good status in the Employment metric achieving a join rank of one with the University of Limerick indicating NUI Galway/UL have the most students in employment after graduation. 

In the Sunday Times, Good University Guide published in 2017,  NUI Galway achieved the University of the Year status. This was the 3rd time that NUI Galway won this inaugural Sunday Times University Guide 'University of the Year', gaining this status previously in 2009 and in 2002. The published results are provided in a supplementary guide format in the Sunday Times. The Sunday Times University Guide provides a University League Table and a short synopsis of each of the Irish Universities.  Outperforming 21 other third-level institutions, NUI Galway's strong reputation as a centre of excellence in relation to medical technology, its excellence across the arts and sciences, its impressive progression rates as well as having the best job prospects of any other Irish university were among the reasons for the award. The Sunday Times highlighted a number of factors contributing to the University's success, including the quality of academic staff, research citations and income, student job prospects, our recent investment in medtech research, as well as new facilities for Drama, Human Biology, and medical academies.