Irish universities excel at English literature

Eight Irish universities have made the global top 200 for specific subject areas in the QS World University Rankings.

Trinity College Dublin’s English department has been placed 28th in the world, while its history, politics and modern language departments have also featured in the top 50.

University College Dublin made the top 100 in several subject areas, including English, economics, geography, biological sciences, and accounting and finance.

The law school at University College Cork was placed in the top 100 in the world alongside TCD. UCC's modern languages department also made the top 100.

Computer science
Other universities that featured in this year's rankings included NUI Galway, with top 200 placements for English, history, law, computer science and pharmacy

. NUI Maynooth ranked in geography and English.

Dublin City University was in the top 200 for computer science while University of Limerick placed for modern languages and education.

Overall, Irish universities performed strongly in the areas of computer science, medicine and law. However, English language and literature was the best-performing discipline among the Irish universities featured, with five English departments making the top 200 in the world.

The rankings by subject, compiled by British education company QS, take into account the opinion of academics and employers via a global survey. The overall QS university ranking is published in September. With competition for international students intensifying, global ranking mechanisms are watched by governments and the higher education sector.

"Although only eight of the country's institutions have ranked in the top 200, we found that 23 Irish institutions . . . have been cited by academics in at least one subject, which suggests that the international reputation of the country's institutions among academics is strong," said QS head of research Ben Sowter.