THE WORLD ranking of both Trinity College Dublin and UCD has improved dramatically, according to the most prestigious international review.
The TimesHigher Education/QS World University Rankings, published today, show Trinity breaking into the top 50, ranked at 49 - up from 53.
TCD becomes the first Irish third-level institution to make it into the elite top-50 group.
The rankings also deliver very good news for UCD, now ranked 108 worldwide, up from 177 last year.
The rankings represent a boost for Trinity provost, Dr John Hegarty, and UCD president, Dr Hugh Brady, who have pushed through contentious management reforms.
Trinity College is a top-ranking university in all five discipline categories: Arts and Humanities (32), Social Sciences (59), Natural Sciences (66), Life Sciences and Biomedicine (97), Engineering and IT (135).
Last night, Martin Ince, contributing editor of the Times Higher Education Supplement, said UCD's surge in the ranking was largely based on very positive feedback from employers about the quality of its graduates.
He said UCD was also increasingly seen as a university with the capacity to attract international academic staff and students.
UCD and Trinity are the only Irish third-level colleges in the top 200. Queen's University Belfast is ranked just outside the top 200.
Last night, Dr Hegarty said Trinity's success had "been achieved in the context of a very competitive international environment against much better resourced world leading universities . . .
The fact that Trinity is ranked so highly, relative to the resources available, is a reflection of the very high calibre of our students, the excellence of our research and the strong culture amongst our academic, administrative and support staff to achieve and perform beyond the norm.
"The challenge will be to sustain our top-ranking position and the quality for which we are renowned with increasingly deficient levels of funding."
For the purpose of compiling the rankings, 5,100 academics and almost 1,500 employers were surveyed. Colleges are ranked on the basis of data gathered on
• Peer Academic Review
• Recruiter Review
• International Faculty Ratio
• International Student Ratio
• Student Faculty Ratio
• Citations per Faculty
Britain and the US continue to dominate among the top 10 universities.
Harvard retains its ranking as the top university in the world with Yale moving ahead of Cambridge for the second spot.
Oxford drops to fourth, while Princeton drops out of the top 10, replaced by the only new entrant, Columbia University.
In the top 100 universities, there are 43 in North America, 36 in Europe and 13 in Asia.
World's leading universities 2008
1:HARVARD, United States
2:YALE University, United States
3:University of CAMBRIDGE, United Kingdom
4:University of OXFORD, United Kingdom
5:CALIFORNIA Institute of Technology (Caltech), United States
6:IMPERIAL College London, United Kingdom
7:UCL (University College London), United Kingdom
8:University of CHICAGO, United States
9:MASSACHUSETTS Institute of Technology (MIT), United States
10:COLUMBIA University, United States
Also
49:TRINITY College Dublin, Ireland
108:University College Dublin, Ireland
Source: TimesHigher Education - QS World University Rankings 2008