RCSI has been ranked among the top 250 (top 2%) of universities worldwide in the 2019 Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings which are announced today. RCSI has maintained its worldwide position in the #201- 250 category and ranks second out of nine institutions in the Republic of Ireland.

RCSI’s performance in the rankings is linked in particular to its continued strength in the citations pillar, with a field-weighted citation impact that is the highest in Ireland and twice the world average. These indicators provide a strong evidence base for RCSI’s impactful research in translational health sciences in areas including cancer; neuroscience; population health and health services; regenerative medicine; surgical science and practice; and vascular biology.

The World University Rankings are generated from five pillars, each of which represents a key area of higher education excellence: teaching, research, citations, industry income, and international outlook.

Commenting on the rankings, Professor Cathal Kelly, RCSI Chief Executive/Registrar said: “Maintaining our strong performance in the THE World University Rankings in an increasingly competitive global education environment is testament to the commitment and innovation of our students, faculty, researchers and professional staff. We are proud of RCSI’s strong performance this year and have ambitious plans to strengthen our position and move into the top 200 (top 1%) within the next five years.

“We are investing in future-focussed curricula to enable our students to thrive in challenging healthcare environments internationally. Coupled with our recent €80m investment in 26 York Street, home to Europe’s most advanced clinical simulation facility, and a further €11m to expand education and research facilities at the RCSI Smurfit Building in Beaumont Hospital, we are transforming healthcare education, so that our students graduate with the requisite knowledge and skills to lead the world to better health.

“RCSI’s performance in citations demonstrates the highly influential health sciences research being carried out by our scientists, clinicians and educators that is making an impact worldwide. The StAR Programme has enabled RCSI to recruit more leading researchers to accelerate the delivery of innovative, impactful research in the health sciences. RCSI has the highest success rate in the EU Horizon 2020 funding by an Irish institution (28%). With these strengths, together with our impressive field-weighted citation impact, we hope to make further strides in societal and global impact in health sciences research in the coming years.” Professor Kelly concluded.

Rankings highlights

• RCSI is ranked 102nd for normalised citation impact in the world out of 1258 institutions, reflecting high quality research outputs.
• RCSI continues to perform strongly in the area of international outlook (65th in the world), a strong indicator of RCSI’s international collaboration and diversity.
• RCSI continues to rise in the area of industry income, a testament to RCSI’s valuable and growing relationships with industry partners.

RCSI is an international not-for-profit health sciences institution, with its headquarters in Dublin, focused on education and research to drive improvements in human health worldwide.

RCSI’s Strategic Academic Recruitment (StAR) Programme aims to accelerate the delivery of innovative, impactful research in the health sciences through the recruitment of leading researchers across a range of specialist research areas, including the creation of novel medical devices and the development of new therapeutics and new diagnostic tests.