Two Estonian universities ranked among 500 of world's best universities

Photo: Sille Annuk

According to a recent list of QS World University Rankings Estonia's University of Tartu (UT) improved its position to 461-470 and Tallinn University of Technology (TTU) reached the top 500 list for the first time.

Last year the University of Tartu placed in the range of 500-550, spokespeople for the university told BNS.

The Tallinn University of Technology claimed a place between 441-450 becoming the highest ranking university in Estonia and the Baltic countries, the Estonian public broadcaster ERR reports.

TTU ranked high in the faculty to student category placing 158th, but fell in the citations per faculty category to 652nd. UT also excelled in the faculty to student category placing 313th, but fell in the international students category to 666th.'

Estonia's third big higher education institution, Tallinn University, did not make the list.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Harvard University and the University of Cambridge topped the list while the University of Latvia, along with three Lithuanian universities, was placed in the 701+ group and Vilnius University placed 601-650.

Nine Finnish universities made the list with the University of Helsinki the highest at 69th. Russia's highest entry is the Lomonosov Moscow State University which placed 120th.

This year the data of over 3,000 universities around the world were analyzed and instead of ranking 700 universities, this year's list had 800 universities. When compiling rankings, QS takes into account three indicators: a university's reputation among scientists as well as employers of the corresponding field, and quotability of publications according to Scopus Database.

In addition to compiling subject rankings and university rankings, QS  also ranks universities across the world on their academic reputation in five scientific areas since 2007. Subject rankings are based on the corresponding field's scientists' opinion polls and 400 best ones are ranked in every subject. The best ranking so far for the University of Tartu is from 2010 in the field of life sciences and medicine, when it placed 301–350.

The QS World University Ranking is one of three major ranking lists for higher education facilities. The Academic Ranking of World Universities features no university from Estonia on its top 500 list while the Times Higher Education Ranking places Tartu as the only Estonian entry in the 351-400 group.