Educational sciences offered at University of Tartu continue to rise in world rankings

The QS World University Rankings published today feature 15 curricula offered by the University of Tartu. The Educational Sciences curriculum, which entered the globally influential rankings for the first time in 2019, has risen to between 201st and 250th place in this year’s list. 

The highest-placed university curricula on the list (ranked 151st-200th) are Philosophy, Agriculture & Forestry, Geography, Communication & Media Studies and Political Science & International Studies. Compared to last year, both English Language & Literature and Educational Sciences have improved their rankings: both were to be found between 251st and 300th place in the 2019 list, but this year are ranked 201st-250th. The Educational Sciences curriculum entered the rankings for the first time last year.

Äli Leijen, the head of the Institute of Education at the University of Tartu, says that everyone in the institute is proud of the result, since a great deal of emphasis has been placed on boosting academic activity in the institute in the last five years. “Our team have been doing a lot of work internationally, taking part in all sorts of research and development projects, and that’s produced some world-class scientific articles,” she explained. “They also play an active role in international professional organisations and on the editorial boards of science journals, all of which seems to have done a lot to boost the visibility of our institute abroad.”

In addition to Educational Sciences and English Language & Literature, the Philology and Sociology curricula offered by the university can also be found between 201st and 250th place in the rankings.

Other curricula on the list are Modern Languages and Biology (ranked 251st-300th), Computer Science and Pharmacy (351st-400th), Physics & Astronomy (451st-500th) and Chemistry (501st-550th).

The influential QS World University Rankings are compiled by the consultancy firm Quacquarelli Symonds (QS), which has also been ranking universities by curricula in 48 subjects since 2011. Depending on the subject, the number of universities ranked in this way ranges from 50 (e.g. Stomatology, Library Science and Veterinary Science) to 600 (e.g. Chemistry, Physics and Computer Science).

In compiling the rankings, QS takes into account the reputation of a university among researchers, scientists and employers in the given field and bibliometric indicators from the Scopus database. The weightings of the indicators vary by field: for some subjects, such as Art and Design, only reputation is taken into account; while for subjects with higher volumes of publication, the bibliometric results wield greater influence.

For further information please contact:
Äli Leijen, Head of Institute of Education, University of Tartu, +372 737 6441, ali.leijen@ut.ee
Lauri Randveer, Senior Specialist in International Cooperation, University of Tartu, +372 737 5510, lauri.randveer@ut.ee