Academic Centre
In 2023, the same as in 2022, UL was assessed in the following subject areas: arts and humanities; clinical and health science; computer science; life sciences, physical sciences and social sciences. The rating in the fields of computer science, social sciences and physical sciences has remained unchanged. The new methodology of rankings, whereby the cooperation between universities and hospitals has been evaluated differently than before, has reduced the performance assessment of UL in clinical and health sciences, the ranking in life sciences has been altered, as well as, compared to previous years, the ranking in arts and humanities has decreased, since a greater emphasis has been placed on the number of citations.
“It should be noted that the results are not objectively comparable with the indices of the previous years. In every sphere, including university rankings, cyclical changes are necessary to reflect the current situation. The changes in the methodology of rankings and in the indexing of authors’ citations in Scopus – the leading database of scientific publications – are likewise reflected in these results of THE Rankings,” comments UL Rector, Professor Indriķis Muižnieks.
In THE Rankings by Subject, UL has achieved the highest position among the Latvian higher education institutions in all the categories wherein it is evaluated. UL has not been assessed in the subject of engineering, where Riga Technical University ranks 601st–800th, while Latvia University of Life Sciences and Technologies takes the 1000+ place. Rīga Stradiņš University was evaluated in several subject areas as well.
The results of THE rankings in each subject area are acquired by rigorous evaluation of the teaching (learning environment), research (volume, income and reputation), frequency of citations of scientific publications (research influence), international outlook (staff, students and research) and income from cooperation with industry (innovation) evaluation. For each subject area, the weights of these criteria differ.
Similar to previous years, the universities of Great Britain and the USA have received the highest results in all the subject areas: Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard, Princeton, Berkeley, Stanford, California Institute of Technology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The University of Tartu maintains the highest position among the higher education institutions of the Baltic countries in several subject areas.
Times Higher Education is one of the world's three most influential university rankings, and it has been published for 20 years. THE World University Rankings by Subject encompasses 11 subject areas (arts and humanities, business and economics, clinical and health, computer science, education, engineering, law, life sciences, physical sciences, psychology and social sciences), providing an overview of the best universities in the world.
, released the latest results on 26 October. Here, the universities are evaluated in 11 major subject areas. The University of Latvia (UL) was ranked in six out of 11 subject areas. In all the science categories in which UL was evaluated, the university received the highest rankings among the four Latvian higher education institutions assessed by THE Rankings, achieving the 601st–800th place. ){kind=link}