The quality of Irish Universities

oppenheimer1 · 17-09-2010 04:29AM #1

A good news story at last. The Times higher education world league tables, using the revised method looking at performance more closely, puts two Irish universities in the top 100, Trinity at 76 and UCD at 94. Something we should be proud of considering we are such a small country and those larger such as Spain, Italy, Netherlands, Norway all place lower than us.

http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/world-university-rankings/2010-2011/top-200.html

amacachi · 17-09-2010 04:30AM

Trinity's at 50 something in another list so I'll ignore this one. :pac:

delta_bravo · 17-09-2010 07:34AM

amacachi wrote: »

Trinity's at 50 something in another list so I'll ignore this one. :pac:

Not anymore, they're down in the 80s now in the other list and UCD is out of the top 100. I cant remember the name of it but I think its more recognised than the THES

RMD · 17-09-2010 07:44AM

I hate people who complain about the quality of Irish universities. We're a very small country in comparison to the vast majority in that list and what set's us apart is we offer free education to our citizens other than the registration fee.

Ireland does very well considering what we have on paper.

amacachi · 17-09-2010 08:00AM

delta_bravo wrote: »

Not anymore, they're down in the 80s now in the other list and UCD is out of the top 100. I cant remember the name of it but I think its more recognised than the THES

http://www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings/world-university-rankings/2010/results This one? Can't see an updated version.

Jev/N · 17-09-2010 08:17AM

amacachi wrote: »

http://www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings/world-university-rankings/2010/results This one? Can't see an updated version.

That's the one, TCD dropped from 43 to 52 and UCD fell below the 100 mark

i-digress · 17-09-2010 08:21AM

oppenheimer1 wrote: »

A good news story at last. The Times higher education world league tables, using the revised method looking at performance more closely, puts two Irish universities in the top 100, Trinity at 76 and UCD at 94. Something we should be proud of considering we are such a small country and those larger such as Spain, Italy, Netherlands, Norway all place lower than us.

http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/world-university-rankings/2010-2011/top-200.html

It's good in one way, but it gives the government an excuse to continue to under invest in third and fourth level education. 'Ah they're grand without it' etc.

ejmaztec · 17-09-2010 11:14AM

Irish universities "could do better".:(

darragh16 · 17-09-2010 11:18AM

They've always been a Top 100, shame the others couldnt push the top 100 such as DCU and the NUI's

Noodleworm · 17-09-2010 11:23AM

All the universities on those lists are very very old, in fact the older, the higher on the list. DCU is a lot smaller and only about 20 years old.

starlit · 17-09-2010 11:38AM

UCC came up in the rankings so thats a good sign. I think its a great University.

Einhard · 17-09-2010 11:44AM

Meh. I take all these lists with a pinch of salt. They're generally compiled on how often an institution's staff are cited in peer reviewed papers, which is all well and good if you're MIT or CalTech, or have large, well funded technical schools, but not so good if you focus on the Arts, or have a more varied curriculum.

SnowSurfer · 17-09-2010 11:55AM

Who cares about ranks? I'm in trinity at the moment and I think it's amazing! I never want to leave! I'v also been around ucd and dcu, attending lectures with friends in those universities and I think the facilities and quality of education is exceptional!

Besides,the higher the rank, the more expensive the fees, the more difficult it is to get a place.

Bogsnorkler · 17-09-2010 12:11PM

Head someone mention at graduation that Ireland has 3 universities in the top 200, which equates to 3 in the top 2% in the world. Not bad if true.

steddyeddy · 17-09-2010 12:17PM

Im about to return to education in ucd, it will be my first time in a irish university as I was formerly educated in idaho state university. I know that in america ucd would be held in higher regard than trinity in terms of the sciences because for some reason trinity award a bac in some of the sciences!

steddyeddy · 17-09-2010 12:22PM

Einhard wrote: »

Meh. I take all these lists with a pinch of salt. They're generally compiled on how often an institution's staff are cited in peer reviewed papers, which is all well and good if you're MIT or CalTech, or have large, well funded technical schools, but not so good if you focus on the Arts, or have a more varied curriculum.

you hit the nail on the head there I would take much notice of it at all and i would rather see a breakdown of how the sciences arts do at the various colleges.

Mark200 · 17-09-2010 12:56PM

steddyeddy wrote: »

Im about to return to education in ucd, it will be my first time in a irish university as I was formerly educated in idaho state university. I know that in america ucd would be held in higher regard than trinity in terms of the sciences because for some reason trinity award a bac in some of the sciences!

There's absolutely no difference, in terms of standard, between a BA and a BSc

rossie1977 · 17-09-2010 01:04PM

Einhard wrote: »

Meh. I take all these lists with a pinch of salt. They're generally compiled on how often an institution's staff are cited in peer reviewed papers, which is all well and good if you're MIT or CalTech, or have large, well funded technical schools, but not so good if you focus on the Arts, or have a more varied curriculum.

yep, its based on the universities quality of research

robby^5 · 17-09-2010 01:55PM

Bogsnorkler wrote: »

Head someone mention at graduation that Ireland has 3 universities in the top 200, which equates to 3 in the top 2% in the world. Not bad if true.

DCU is in the top 300, it's 279th. But these polls dont count for much imo.

FreudianSlippers · 17-09-2010 03:28PM

We are (or at least were for the past 30 years) one of the top exporters of educated people in the world. Sure it's a shame to see people leaving this country, but when we have such a small country with a high number of educated individuals it's bound to happen.
I find it hard to see how our universities could be that bad when we export so many intelligent and educated people.

I've had good experiences in University in Ireland and I think the people that want to point out how **** education has gotten are more likely people who never went to Uni and are trying to justify something.

flash1080 · 17-09-2010 03:30PM

OisinT wrote: »

I've had good experiences in University in Ireland and I think the people that want to point out how **** education has gotten are more likely people who never went to Uni and are trying to justify something.

Or maybe they're intelligent people who've noticed "how **** education has gotten".

YFlyer · 17-09-2010 03:34PM

Australian Universities usually do quite well in these rankings.

pickarooney · 17-09-2010 03:41PM

I've noticed that the United States does quite well in these rankings, for a nation of idiots.

(do I need to put something in brackets here?)

YFlyer · 17-09-2010 03:47PM

pickarooney wrote: »

I've noticed that the United States does quite well in these rankings, for a nation of idiots.

(do I need to put something in brackets here?)

A lot of money from Alumni.

aDeener · 17-09-2010 03:48PM

OisinT wrote: »

We are (or at least were for the past 30 years) one of the top exporters of educated people in the world. Sure it's a shame to see people leaving this country, but when we have such a small country with a high number of educated individuals it's bound to happen.
I find it hard to see how our universities could be that bad when we export so many intelligent and educated people.

I've had good experiences in University in Ireland and I think the people that want to point out how **** education has gotten are more likely people who never went to Uni and are trying to justify something.

well we wouldn't be such good exporters if so many didnt leave :pac:

Killer Pigeon · 17-09-2010 07:09PM

I find the world rankings quite biased. Why are there so many universities from English speaking countries up there?

Anyway, I don't think that the academic standards in Irish universities have decreased over the past year. I think the decline in the world rankings was mainly due to the lack of funding and investment by ... guess who? That's right, the government. So, just blame the government and the recession, seems to be quite a common yet valid solution here on AH.

prinz · 17-09-2010 07:18PM

Outside of lists and tables I don't think we do that well tbh, having seen what was expected of students at a couple of European universities, there was no comparison in educational quality whatsoever. Have spoken to a number of foreign students who spent time here and it's treated as a doss year/semester.

southsiderosie · 17-09-2010 07:18PM

Killer Pigeon wrote: »

I find the world rankings quite biased. Why are there so many universities from English speaking countries up there?

Anyway, I don't think that the academic standards in Irish universities have decreased over the past year. I think the decline in the world rankings was mainly due to the lack of funding and investment by ... guess who? That's right, the government. So, just blame the government and the recession, seems to be quite a common yet valid solution here on AH.

Because they generally have the most money and attract the best research faculty. US universities in particular poach everyone else's top faculty & researchers (although this is changing a bit). And most of the top journals are published in English.

Over the next several decades, I think a lot of European universities are going to start getting squeezed out of higher ranking slots by Asian universities, both due to lavish funding and high levels of technical research output.

Fringe · 17-09-2010 07:18PM

steddyeddy wrote: »

Im about to return to education in ucd, it will be my first time in a irish university as I was formerly educated in idaho state university. I know that in america ucd would be held in higher regard than trinity in terms of the sciences because for some reason trinity award a bac in some of the sciences!

So do Cambridge and Oxford.

southsiderosie · 17-09-2010 07:24PM

pickarooney wrote: »

I've noticed that the United States does quite well in these rankings, for a nation of idiots.

(do I need to put something in brackets here?)

When we're good we're very very good, but when we're bad we're horrid.

MultiUmm · 17-09-2010 07:36PM

I have to ask, are these American universities who always score the top places really the best universities in the world?
I'm not saying they're not very good, they're probably great, but who decides what universities come first? How does the system involved with judging them and giving them ranks work?

The quality of Irish Universities

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