Estonian, Lithuanian universities outrank Latvia in Times Higher Education New Europe rankings

RIGA - Estonian and Lithuanian universities outrank Latvian higher education establishments in the Times Higher Education university rankings in "New Europe” or the 13 nations that have joined the European Union since 2004.

Times Higher Education New Europe University Rankings cover 53 institutions in total and uses the same methodology as the Times Higher Education World University Rankings. Institutions from across twelve of the thirteen newest EU member states have made it to the list, Malta being the only exception.

The University of Tartu in Estonia is at the top of the list, followed by two Cyprus universities. Lithuania's Vilnius University ranks 15th but the two leading Latvian universities - the University of Latvia and the Riga Technical University (RTU) - have lower rankings.

The University of Latvia shares the 31st-40th rankings with universities from Poland, Romania, the Czech Republic, Croatia and Hungary, and the RTU ranking is 41+ that it shares with another 12 universities, including Lithuania's Kaunas University of Technology.

Janis Stonis, Vice-Rector of the University of Latvia, said that Times Higher Education had produced the New Europe University Rankings for the first time. "The ranking shows that we are known and are being reckoned with," he said, adding that competition among the universities in Europe was transforming from direct competition between the institutions into a competition between the university networks and alliances.

The Times Higher Education World University Rankings are based on the performance indicators grouped into five areas: Teaching, Research, Citations, International Outlook and Industry Income.