Estonia has reached record high in the QS World University Rankings

According to one of the most important university ranking lists, the QS World University Rankings published today, the University of Tartu now holds the highest position ever, the 379th.

Rector of the University of Tartu Professor Volli Kalm is very pleased about the improved ranking of the University of Tartu and gives credit to the entire university for this achievement. “The University of Tartu has set high ambitions and quality requirements for itself both in research and teaching, so ranking high on global lists is a satisfying recognition to our everyday work,” said Kalm.

The steady rise of the University of Tartu is the more valuable considering that new universities generously financed by countries with faster economic growth are added to the list all the time. “Doing well in the rankings is not an objective in itself for the university, but the high position shows that our continuous work in setting and achieving development objectives is recognised outside the university and outside Estonia,” emphasised Kalm.

In 2013, the University of Tartu was placed 461–470. This year’s high position is due to the fact that the University of Tartu has improved its performance in all aspects taken into account when compiling the ranking list.

“The University of Tartu got a very high result in the survey of academics. The reputation of the University of Tartu in the academic world has improved significantly – by 7.4 points in only one year, from 30.5 to 37.9,” said Reesi Lepa, Head of International Cooperation, delighted by the recognition from experts. The result of the survey of academics is the cornerstone of the QS ranking list, accounting to as much as 40% of the overall score.

In the process of preparing the ranking list, QS takes into account the survey among academic leaders and heads of institutions of higher education, the proportion of students and lecturers, the reputation of the university as the employer, the significance of academic publications and the percentage of foreign lecturers and students.

In addition to preparing the general ranking, QS has also ranked the world’s universities according to their academic reputation in five subject areas: arts and humanities, engineering and technology, life sciences and medicine, natural science and social sciences and management. The first 400 are ranked in each subject area.

As in the previous years, the University of Tartu is represented in two areas: its shares the 302nd place in arts and humanities and holds the 394th place in social sciences and management.

The leader of the chart is Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), followed by the Imperial College London and University of Cambridge. As to the universities of the Baltic states, Tallinn University of Technology is positioned 501–550, Vilnius University 551–600, Vilnius Gediminas Technical University 701+ and the University of Latvia 701+.

This year, more than 90,000 researchers, academic opinion leaders and employees gave their expert opinion on the universities by answering the survey.

The data about more than 3,000 universities around the world was analysed for preparing the rankings of 2014.

For more information about the results of the QS ranking, see the QS homepage.

The University of Tartu is among 3% of the world’s most reputable universities (Times Higher Education Rankings) and among 1% of the most referred scientific research establishments (ESI) in ten fields of science. The rankings of the Times Higher Education magazine, which is considered to be the most reputable ranking of the universities, will be updated on 1 October 2014.

Additional information: Reesi Lepa, Head of International Cooperation, phone: +372 737 6123, +372 504 4190, email: reesi.lepa@ut.ee.