THE World University Rankings, which have been published since 2010, were expanded in the last cycle to include a number of new indicators. The new methodology now better reflects the changing role of universities in a globalised world. In addition to the quality of teaching and research, it also assesses the research environment, the degree of internationalisation and international cooperation, and cooperation with industry. An institution’s reputation in the academic world and the citation rate of its publications according to the Scopus database remain the most important factors in the rankings.
Masaryk University fared best in the Research Environment category, where it was ranked 429th in the world, an improvement of 13 positions compared to last year. The year-on-year improvement in this category was made possible by MU’s increased research income and the number of articles indexed in the Scopus database. MU was also ranked 472 out of the world’s top 500 universities in the International Outlook category, thanks to a stable base of foreign students and staff at MU, as well as strong research collaboration with international institutions.
“I am very pleased with the current THE ranking of Masaryk University, although I would of course like to see a year-on-year improvement not only in actual performance, which we are clearly achieving, but also in the final world ranking. However, given last year’s leap in the rankings, where we moved up 200 places, and this year’s significant increase in the number of participating universities, I consider the fact that we have maintained our position to be a success in itself, as not only the number of competitors is increasing, but also their performance. That is why I am particularly pleased that we have once again made it into the Top 500 in the area of Research Environment, which is based on the research productivity of our academics, the ability to attract research funding, which confirms our success in obtaining grants, and last but not least, our research reputation,” said Rector Martin Bareš.
Traditionally, MU’s strongest sub-indicators remain International Students (this year's score of 87.3 out of 100), which represents the proportion of international students in the university’s student population and is part of a group of indicators assessing internationalisation and international collaboration; Research Influence (90.7), which measures the citation rate of the institution’s publications in a narrow group of highly cited sources (according to Scopus); and Research Income (score 79.1), which measures the institution’s income for research purposes per academic staff member.
The University of Oxford topped the rankings for the ninth consecutive year, with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in second place this year and Harvard University in third. Stanford University dropped from second to sixth place in this year’s rankings. The highest ranking Czech university is Prague’s Charles University, which has maintained its 401-500th position from last year’s world rankings. The Czech University of Life Sciences Prague is the next behind Masaryk University with a ranking of 801-1000th in the world. A total of 17 Czech universities made it into the latest rankings.