VSB-TUO has improved its position in the THE World University Rankings

The Times Higher Education World University Rankings (THE WUR) is, alongside with the Shanghai Ranking and the QS World University Rankings, one of the most prestigious and widely followed global university rankings.

Jana Kukutschová, Vice-Rector for Science and Research at VSB-TUO, expressed her satisfaction with this year's performance, "Although we certainly still have a lot of room for improvement, I am pleased with our year-on-year rise in this prestigious ranking, because we are trying to work systematically on strategic areas of the University's functioning in this area."

The ranking has been published by the British Times Higher Education since 2010. Notably, the methodology for THE WUR 2024 has undergone significant updates. The assessment is based on 18 performance indicators, which are still grouped into five areas, albeit with some slight name changes: teaching (the learning environment); research environment (volume, income and reputation); research quality (citation impact, research strength, research excellence and research influence); international outlook (staff, students and research); and industry (income and patents). Among these indicators, five are entirely new, with a particular emphasis on evaluating research quality.

VSB-TUO has excelled in the area of research environment, ranking 828th globally, compared to 889th the previous year. It made an even more significant improvement in the area of teaching, climbing from the 1229th spot to the 882nd place this year. Additionally, VSB-TUO maintains its presence among the top 900 universities in terms of international outlook, securing the 892nd position, which closely matches last year's ranking of 902nd.

In the industry category, VSB-TUO was ranked 1156th globally, down year-on-year. It should be noted that last year, only industry income was assessed in the "industry income" area with a weight of 2.5 %; this year, this area has been renamed "industry" and a new indicator "patents" (2 %) was added to the industry income indicator (2 %).  VSB-TUO demonstrated a positive trend in the research quality category, currently standing at the 1495th position, an improvement from last year's 1706th place.

Within the Czech Republic, 18 universities met the key criteria for inclusion in the ranking, consistent with the number in the previous three years. VSB-TUO, which has shown progress year-on-year, shares its position in the range of 1201 - 1500 with four other Czech universities: Mendel University, Tomas Bata University in Zlín, University of Hradec Kralove and University of West Bohemia in Pilsen. Among Czech universities, Charles University was the best performer, being the only Czech university ranked in the top 500 (401 -500).

Globally, Anglo-Saxon universities continue to exert their dominance in the rankings, with the University of Oxford at the forefront. The complete results list is available here.

Text: Martina Šaradínová, PR specialist for R&D