Vilnius University strengthens its position in the region’s top 20
Vilnius University (VU) has strengthened its position in the region’s top 20 institutes of higher education, and now appears at a record-high 18th place in QS University Rankings: Emerging Europe and Central Asia, EECA, whose fourth updated edition has just been published.
This is the best result the university has achieved since the rankings began to be compiled. VU holds first place in Lithuania by academic reputation, reputation among employers, student–faculty ratio, frequency of publication citations, as well as internet visibility indicators.
“Our annually rising position in the rankings show that the directions we have chosen is producing noticeable results. It is nice to see that, according to employer assessments, we are in 11th place in the entire region, with 97 points out of a possible 100. We value the trust of business leaders, which motivates us to be more visible, not only in the region but globally as well,” said VU rector Prof. Arturas Zukauskas.
Compilers of the ranking had noted that over the past four years, VU has been consistently pulling ahead of its competition not only in Lithuania, but also the entire region reflected in the rankings. From 2011, VU indicators exceeded the average results of other institutes of higher education in the region by a few tens of percents, and this number has increased every year. This year, the difference compared to the average results of institutes of higher education in other regions went up to 137 percent. In Lithuania, the difference increased to 86.4 percent.
EECA ranked universities in Eastern and Central Europe, as well as in Central Asia. The same data as in the global ranking of universities, QS World University Rankings, is used to create this ranking: only indicator weights are modified, as well as new indicators such as the number of academics holding a doctorate, the university’s internet visibility based on Webometrics data, and the frequency of citations of scientific works. Last year, VU held 21st place in this ranking.