The University of Coimbra makes its way back into the world's top 500
Seven years on, the University of Coimbra is back in THE WUR's world top 500, ranking in the 401-500 range.
Translation: Diana Taborda
The University of Coimbra (UC) is in the top 500 universities in the world in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings (THE WUR) 2024, released today, moving up by over 100 positions from the last edition of this prestigious ranking.
Seven years on, the University of Coimbra has once again made it into THE WUR top 500 in the world, ranking between 401 and 500, just like its main national counterparts. This ranking, which analyses over 2,600 higher education institutions (HEIs) from all around the globe, mirrors the results of the diversity of research-intensive universities in their main missions: teaching, research, knowledge transfer and international outlook. In the previous edition, THE WUR 2023 (published in 2022), the UC was ranked in the 601-800 range and has remained out of the top 500 since THE WUR 2017 (published in 2016).
Research Environment and Industry were the two pillars where the University of Coimbra stood out the most, ranking 278th and 290th in the world respectively.
In the Research Environment area, the indicators measured were Research Reputation, which assesses the university's reputation for research excellence among its peers; Reputation Income, which is weighted by the number of teaching staff and adjusted for purchasing power parity; and Research Productivity, which measures the number of publications in academic journals.
In the Industry pillar, two indicators were assessed: income and patents, the latter being a new metric in this edition. The income indicator assessed the ability of the university to support industry in innovation and consultancy through knowledge transfer, by analysing the amount of research income received by the university from industry, based on the number of teaching staff employed by the university. The patents indicator analysed the number of patents from any source citing research conducted by the university.
"This result confirms the sustained growth that has allowed the University of Coimbra to reposition itself among the world's elite higher education institutions. This year, we have re-entered the top 500 of two of the main rankings (THE WUR and Shanghai), and we have also achieved our best-ever position in the QS WUR (351st, moving up 87 places compared to last year). We want to consolidate this progress over the coming years," says the UC Rector, Amílcar Falcão, further highlighting the performance in the Research Environment and Industry pillars. "We are very pleased to see the University of Coimbra achieving outstanding positions in such important indicators. We want to be internationally recognised as a research university where high quality knowledge production enhances the sharing of knowledge with society. We are therefore proud to achieve top positions in indicators that specifically measure the productivity, reputation, and income of our research, as well as the transfer of knowledge and technology to society".
In total, THE World University Rankings 2024 measured 18 performance indicators across five main areas: Teaching, Research Environment, Research Quality, International Outlook, and Industry.