Edinburgh in world’s top 20 universities – and Glasgow is up as well

Edinburgh and Glasgow both improved their standing among the top 100 institutions in the world, which saw Cambridge retain its No 1 status.

Dundee also rose in the listings, but St Andrews, Aberdeen, Strathclyde and Heriot-Watt all slipped back.

Edinburgh improved by two spots to 20th compared with last year, while Glasgow saw the best improvement amongst Scottish institutions, jumping from 77th to 59th. St Andrews slipped a bit to 97th.

Heriot-Watt saw the biggest drop, from 356th last year to the 401-450 range this year, while Dundee improved slightly, from 201st to 199th. Aberdeen dropped from 117th to 141st and Strathclyde from 265th to joint 270th.

Cambridge was first for the second year in a row, ahead of Harvard, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Yale, with Oxford rounding out the top five.

But QS (Quacquarelli Symonds), which put together the table, said the fact a university had a lower ranking did not mean its quality had fallen, merely that there was stiffer competition from hundreds of institutions around the globe.

Ben Sowter, head of the QS Intelligence Unit, said: “There is balanced news for Scottish universities in this year’s rankings. Rankings are relative – so for each institution that moves up, another has to move down.

“Global standards against many of our measures are improving, so a university actually has to get better to stay in the same place. The rise of the University of Edinburgh gives Scotland a top-20 university for the second time in the last three years, and Dundee’s ascent to the top 200 sees Scotland with five institutions achieving that accolade this year.”

Mr Sowter said Aberdeen, in particular, had shown a marked drop because the number of academics responding to its surveys was much higher, at 33,000.

He said: “Aberdeen has simply not resonated as strongly amongst this years respondents as it had done previously.

“Aberdeen’s rank over the past four years has been 153, 129, 117 and now 141 – so despite the year-on-year drop, the university can take pride in being able to count themselves amongst the world’s top 1 per cent of institutions on a consistent basis.”

In more detailed breakdowns, Edinburgh ranked 15th in the world for employability of students, based on a survey of more than 16,000 employers.

Shelagh Green, careers service director at the university, said: “This latest endorsement of our graduates’ employability, which comes from leading organisations around the world, is an indication of the high regard in which our graduates are held.

“This endorsement is borne out by our excellent track record in helping students to find employment once they have completed their studies.”

QS considered 2,919 of the world’s 20,000 institutions to establish a ranking of 712 top centres. The first 300 are published today, above which centres are ranked in groups of 50.

Glasgow University principal and vice-chancellor Professor Anton Muscatelli said: “This is our best ever performance in the QS World University rankings, a remarkable achievement and one that confirms Glasgow’s position as one of the world’s leading universities.

“Being in the top 1 per cent of world universities is fantastic, and is a tribute to our tremendously hard-working staff, researchers and students.”

St Andrews was one of the best in the world for attracting international students. It was ranked 14th, with Edinburgh 59th, Aberdeen 69th and Glasgow 151st.

Professor Louise Richardson, principal and vice-chancellor at St Andrews, said: “This is a heartening result for the university and for St Andrews.

“We are pleased that the university is able to promote Scotland and Fife as a world-class centre for education and the training of top-quality graduates.

“It’s a gratifying reflection on the commitment and skills of all who work and study here.”