St Andrews amongst world’s top 100 in major league tables

The University of St Andrews is one of the world’s top 100 universities, according to two prominent international rankings published this week (19 June 2019).

The Nature Index 2019, which tracks high-quality research outputs, and the QS World University Rankings 2020 rank St Andrews 82nd and 100th in the world respectively.

The Nature Index 2019 tracks contributions to research articles published in 82 high-quality natural science journals, chosen by an independent group of researchers. For the first time, the Nature Index has produced a normalised ranking which takes a university’s size into account when calculating the output of high-quality research.

The Nature Index also places the University of Dundee 84th in the world, reflecting the global impact of research carried out in this small corner of Fife and Tayside, quickly gaining an international reputation as “Scotland’s intellectual gold coast”. St Andrews, one of Scotland’s smallest universities, and Dundee are the only two Scottish universities to feature in Nature’s normalised ranking.

The QS Rankings, regarded as one of the world’s top two higher education league tables, measures a range of factors including academic reputation, research strengths, citations, reputation with graduate employers and international influence.

St Andrews maintains its position inside the global top 100 in the QS World Rankings despite continued, marked growth in competition from overseas.

The University is also ranked top 30 in the world in the QS Rankings as a beacon for international students and among the world’s top 90 institutions for international faculty, reflecting St Andrews’ strategic drive to be a beacon for students and staff from across the world.

It also boosted its ranking for academic reputation as a world-leading research institute.

St Andrews Principal and Vice-Chancellor Professor Sally Mapstone said: “These are encouraging and gratifying results for St Andrews, and our neighbours Dundee.

“World rankings traditionally favour large urban universities. The Nature Index in particular shows that small can be beautiful, and that the global strengths of our universities in Fife and Tayside are something of which we should be proud, but never complacent.

“The strength of competition from overseas is now a major strategic challenge for all of Scottish and UK higher education.”

The QS World Rankings and Nature Index results follow a strong performance by the University in the recently published Guardian University Guide 2020, in which St Andrews was again ranked the best university in Scotland and second in the UK behind Cambridge.