University of Groningen climbing fast in ranking lists

The University of Groningen has climbed from 120th to 115th place in the QS World University Ranking. The successor of the Times Higher Education ranking – QS and THES split up two years ago – announced the 2011 results this week. ‘Our aim now is to enter the top 100 of the most important university ranking lists next year’, says Sibrand Poppema, President of the Board of the University of Groningen.

In the Shanghai ranking, Groningen climbed from 109th to 103rd place this year, as revealed by an analysis of the various partial scores that make up the ranking list. This study of the University’s actual place – Shanghai Jiao Tong University’s official publication only states that we hold a shared 102nd-150th place – shows that Groningen is the third Dutch university after Utrecht and Leiden.

Economics and chemistry

In addition to a ranking list of universities as a whole, Shanghai also annually publishes lists of subfields. In the ‘Economics and Business’ section, Groningen climbed to a shared 76th-100th place his year and has thus entered the top 100. The ‘Chemistry’ score is also excellent, with a shared 51st-75th place, which is the same as last year.

Rapid growth

Based on recent achievements – the number of publications by the University grew by almost 25 percent in 2010 – Poppema expects that the University of Groningen will climb further in the coming year. ‘We are one of the most rapidly growing universities, and I am convinced that we will enter the top 100 next year’, he said.

The University of Groningen has been climbing rapidly over the last few years thanks to its academic publications in journals such as Science and Nature and the increasing number of times that Groningen academics are cited by other researchers.

Prestige

A place in the top 100 is important for the University’s prestige as it attracts international students, PhD students, postdoc researchers and staff members. It also affects the degree to which businesses and other universities want to work with the University of Groningen.

For further information:
Overview of University of Groningen in the Shanghai ranking list

QS ranking

Shanghai ranking