Masaryk University has risen up the prestigious international university rankings by Times Higher Education and now ranks 501st–600th compared to last year when it was listed in the 601st–800th category. This means that Muni has become the second best-rated university in the Czech Republic this year, with Charles University taking first place.
The Times Higher Education rankings list the top 1,000 universities in the world and this year's list features thirteen Czech institutions. The top places are all taken by institutions from the UK and the US.
“The university is pursuing its strategic goal and improving its position in the international rankings. Recently, it also moved up in the second most respected university rankings by Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) by fifty places to the 551st–600th position and even took first place in the Czech universities when judged by the number of citations per faculty member. Our greatest weakness is still a high student–faculty ratio, even though this has also improved significantly over the last five years,” says Mikuláš Bek, the rector of Masaryk University, about this year's results.
He also highlights that besides their own efforts, universities also need better financing to further improve their position in the international rankings: “Our priority in the current government budget debate is to increase the amount of funding per student. This is the way to improve quality and break into the upper levels of the global elite.”
International rankings only cover the top world universities. A report by Quacquarelli Symonds estimates the total number of tertiary education institutions in the world at 26,000, which places Masaryk University in the top 2% of the best universities in the world.