Trinity College Dublin is one of only two Irish institutions to show a rise in the QS World University Rankings released today. Climbing six places to 61st, this is the first time that Trinity has improved its QS position since 2009.

However, six others have lost ground again this year, showing a progressive decline over a four-year period. Irish universities have now dropped an average of 63 places in the QS survey since 2009.

In a statement to the Irish media yesterday, QS said that while TCD had reversed three years of decline, “the rest of the sector is in free-fall”.

QS is a global education services network based in London. A significant proportion of the QS result is based on a reputation survey, open to academics of all accredited institutions.

Requested reviews
This methodology came under scrutiny earlier this year when management at University College Cork requested staff to lobby other academics to submit positive peer reviews to QS. The practice was outlawed by QS as a result.

The reputation survey is one of six indicators, including faculty-student ratio, publications per faculty, citations per paper and the proportion of international faculty and international students. Irish universities have seen a drop in international student admissions this year.

The QS rankings placed UCD eight places down this year, at 139. UCC fell 20 places to 210 while DCU has slipped by 25 places to 349.

NUI Galway, which has secured considerable R&D investment in the past five years, has risen three places to 284.

The top four Irish institutions, TCD, UCD, UCC and NUI Galway, all increased their scores for research citations.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology headed the rankings again this year.