Most Irish universities have slipped in the latest set of world university rankings, as European universities see their representation at the very top of the international league table shrink.
Overall, the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2025 show mixed results for Irish institutions, with just Dublin City University (DCU) seeing its ranking for 2025 climb. DCU has risen from somewhere between 401 to 500 in 2024, to somewhere between the top 351 and 400 institutions for 2025.
University College Dublin (UCD), RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences and Technological University Dublin (TUD) each held their positions in the latest round of rankings.
UCD maintained its ranking of 201–250, while RCSI and TUD also stayed in the same category for next year, 251–300 and 1001–1200 respectively.
Trinity College Dublin (TCD), Ireland’s top-ranking university and the only one within the top 150 globally, saw its ranking slip by five places from 134 in 2024 to 139 for 2025.
University College Cork (UCC), University of Galway, Maynooth University and the University of Limerick (UL) each saw their rankings slip. UCC fell from 301–350 to 351–400; University of Galway from 301–350 to 351–400; Maynooth from 401–500 to 501–600; and UL from 401–500 to 501–600.
Plans to increase core funding for universities by €150m as part of Budget 2025 received a cautious welcome. Additional funding is expected to come from the National Training Fund, a move long called for by universities.
It follows a warning from one of the country’s most respected business leaders that a core funding crisis in third-level education is putting the very viability of universities at risk.
Sean O’Driscoll, chairman of the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) and chairman of the UCC governing authority, told the : “This is not an affordability issue — it is a funding issue.”
Ranking almost 2,100 universities from 115 different countries and regions, the World University Rankings assess universities across four key areas: teaching, research, knowledge transfer and internationalisation.
Overall, it appears Europe’s status in the global higher education sector is shrinking as the continent’s universities are outperformed by those in Asia.
Europe used to be the most represented continent in the World University rankings. However, for the second year in a row, Asia is the most represented.
Europe is now home to 91 of the world’s top 200 universities, a drop of eight universities from 99 in 2019. Many of those that remain within the top 200 are declining, with this trend particularly visible in Western Europe.
Meanwhile, Asia has contributed the most new entrants to the ranking over the past five years. Of the 211 universities joining the ranking for the first time since 2021, 60% are from Asia whereas 17% are from Europe.
Phil Baty, Times Higher Education’s chief global affairs officer, said more universities are participating each year. “European universities need to work even harder if they want to retain their position in the higher echelons of our ranking.”
The University of Oxford remains the top ranked university for 2025, followed by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Harvard University.
