University of Tartu continues rise in world university rankings

The Times Higher Education (THE), the provider of the most reliable university rankings in the world, published the most recent ranking of the best universities yesterday. For the first time, the University of Tartu is ranked in the top 300 universities (in the range 251–300).

THE World University Rankings 2021 include more universities than ever before: 1527 universities across 93 countries and regions of the world. The University of Oxford tops the rankings for the fifth consecutive year, followed by Stanford University holding the second place and Harvard University the third. Besides two British universities there are eight universities of the United States in the top 10. For the first time, an Asian university has succeeded in breaking into the top 20 – Tsinghua University of China is ranked the 20th. The top 100 includes universities from 18 countries.

The highest-ranking among the partners of the University of Tartu is the University of Toronto (18th), and of our closest neighbours, the University of Helsinki ranks 98th and Uppsala University 111th. In addition to the University of Tartu, two more Estonian universities have made it to the rankings: Tallinn University of Technology and Tallinn University, both ranked in the range 801–1000.

“This year’s QS World University Rankings also confirmed the consistently high quality of our research: in the QS rankings, the University of Tartu also rose to its highest ever ranking, the 285th position,” Rector Toomas Asser said.

Commenting on the university’s position in the QS rankings, UT Vice Rector for Research Kristjan Vassil pointed out that the guiding principle of the university’s strategic plan for the next period is to move closer to the world’s 100 best universities, and currently the university is improving its position in the international rankings by 20 places on average yearly. “Keeping this rate shows that we have achieved excellent international visibility without compromising our role as Estonia’s national university – in developing science, higher education and culture in Estonian and offering evidence-based support for governance to our state and society,” said Vassil.

According to Rector Toomas Asser, these comments by Vice Rector Vassil are also appropriate for explaining the rise in the THE rankings. “The high position in the rankings naturally affirms the excellence of our academic community and the relevance of the objectives we have set. The fact that Estonia’s national university does research and provides higher education on a comparable level to the world’s top universities is valuable for the whole Estonia,” Asser said.

Over the years, the University of Tartu has performed well due to the high number of citations per article, which is an important performance indicator in the THE rankings (accounting for 30% of the final result). In the new rankings, the University of Tartu holds the 164th position among the world’s top universities for this indicator (last year, 216th).

THE has published university rankings since 2004, comparing world research universities across all core missions. In the ranking THE takes into account 13 performance indicators which are grouped into five areas: the learning environment (30% of the final result), research (30%), research influence (30%), industry income (2.5%) and international outlook (7.5%).

Read more about the methodology of the ranking on THE website.

Additional information:
Toomas Asser, Rector of the University of Tartu, +372 516 6849, toomas.asser@ut.ee
Lauri Randveer, Senior Specialist for International Cooperation, University of Tartu, +372 512 9996, lauri.randveer@ut.ee (questions about the ranking and indicators)