Minister Defends Irish Universities

Critical data in The Times Higher Education on the positions of Ireland's universities has provoked a high-level response.

With the Republic of Ireland's five universities ranked only in the top 300 globally, the Minister for Research and Innovation, Séan Sherlock said: "While the headline rankings given to Irish Universities by The Times Higher Education has been widely covered by the media, both here and abroad, there is much more to the Irish position in the wider academic landscape, where our educational institutions are continuing to compete strongly from a worldwide perspective.

"For example, in the Times Higher Education Survey 2011/2012, when the number of universities in the top 200 is considered against GDP, it shows that Ireland ranks 6th in the world," he said.

"Such a high ranking reflects the Government's strategy of improving Ireland's entire academic ecosystem, rather than focusing on a very small number of elite institutions, as is done in some other countries."

He said that the effect of this is to ensure the quality of all graduates from Ireland's HEIs are of a high standard, a fact further borne out in the recent IBEC Employer survey.

He said this found that 75% of employers have no problems recruiting suitable graduates from Irish HEIs, and the multitude of multinational corporations who continue to invest in R&D facilities in Ireland.

The Minister added: "Furthermore, the overall rankings do not reflect Ireland's exceptional performance in certain fields, particularly the sciences."

Thomson Reuters Essential Science Indicators 2010, which measures the impact of countries’ scientific research, ranks Ireland in 20th position in the world across all research fields – a dramatic rise from our placing of 36th as recently as 2003. Ireland is ranked even higher in areas such as in Immunology (3rd) and Materials science (8th).

Ireland continues to produce large numbers of highly educated and skilled workers, despite economic pressures, ranking 4th in the OECD and 1st in the EU in third-level attainment rates of 25-34 year olds.

In addition as captured in the World Competitiveness Yearbook (2011) IMD, Ireland ranks 1st globally for availability of skilled labour and openness to new ideas (up from 4th in 2010) and is ranked 4th globally for labour productivity per person employed per hour (up from 6th in 2010).

Minister Sherlock concluded: "Of course we know that we can continue to further improve elements right across our higher education and innovation system but it is through the quality of our people plus the exceptional work and research being performed at all of our institutions, that we can successfully build a true knowledge economy, one that will grow from strength to strength."

(BMcC/GK)