University of Tartu continues among top 400 in world university rankings

TALLINN - The global higher education consultancy Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) on Tuesday published its world university ranking, in which the University of Tartu, as the best university in Estonia, ranks 358th.

The University of Tartu ranked 358th also in the 20th edition of the ranking based on a thoroughly updated methodology last year and achieved the same result in this year's ranking, the university said in a press release.

The fields of linguistics and geography of the University of Tartu were among the global top 200 in the QS ranking.

"We are critical of the results of the ranking, because the annual methodological changes have a huge impact on the scores of individual universities, but it is difficult to make these changes understandable to everyone," Mari Moora, vice rector for research at the University of Tartu, told Postimees.

Besides the University of Tartu, two more Estonian universities are included in the ranking table: Tallinn University of Technology is ranked in the 621-630 and Tallinn University in the 1,001-1,200 bracket. Educational sciences at the latter university are ranked in the 301-350 bracket, and according to the QS assessment model, this is the strongest field for Tallinn University.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) holds the top spot for the thirteenth consecutive year. Imperial College London has moved up four places and is now in second place, with the University of Oxford and Harvard University ranking third and fourth, respectively.

From last year, QS compiles the university rankings based on nine indicators: academic and employer reputation of the university -- 30 percent and 15 percent, respectively, of the overall score, faculty-student ratio -- 10 percent, citations per faculty -- 20 percent, international student ratio and international faculty ratio -- both 5 percent of the overall score, sustainability -- 5 percent, graduate employability and impact -- 5 percent, and international research network -- 5 percent. The three latter indicators -- sustainability, employment outcomes, and international research network -- were added last year.

For compiling the ranking, QS analyzed the results of 5,663 universities and ranked 1,503 of them. Compared with last year, 21 new higher education institutions were added.