A significant increase in the citation rate of our researchers, dynamic development, raising the quality of education and activities in the field of sustainable development – these are the effects of the activities undertaken at the University of Gdańsk over the past three years, thanks to which in the QS World ranking among 688 European universities our university was classified in the top ten of Polish universities and 6th among classical universities.
QS World University Rankings: Europe 2024 is the first ranking produced by the leading ranking agency QS, focusing exclusively on European universities. In addition to the overall ranking, users can view separate tables by region for Eastern Europe, Western Europe, Northern Europe and Southern Europe.
The QS World University Ranking: Europe, like the global edition of the prestigious ranking, takes into account numerous and varied criteria, including, first and foremost, the level of academic excellence, measured by the number of publications in High Impact journals and the number of citations of individual academics, the teaching offer of the university (which must include teaching at all levels of study) and the level of internationalisation, assessed on the basis of international cooperation, international student and staff exchange programmes or participation in international research networks. Sustainability and environmental performance are also taken into account. In each category, there are minimum parameters that universities must meet in order to be included in the ranking analysis.
'It is already significant that we have been ranked among 33 Polish universities. The 6th place among classical universities and a position among the top ten Polish universities indicates that we are developing dynamically. Our activities – improvement of the education quality, sustainable development, expansion of the offer of foreign exchange, participation in the SEA-EU and other ongoing projects – are noticed and appreciated also abroad,' emphasises the Rector UG, prof. dr hab. Piotr Stepnowski. 'Thanks to programmes supporting scientists that we have introduced, such as the Publication Programme, in which we reward the most prestigious articles and monographs, the number of publications and their quality are gradually increasing. An analysis of the largest international databases – Scopus and Web of Science – shows that citation rates in the last two years have exceeded the world level,' he adds.
The overall European ranking includes 688 universities, with Oxford University in first place. Seven of the top 10 universities in Europe are located in the UK. At position 344, our university is precisely in the middle of this ranking, which is a satisfying result, especially given its relatively young age, and stimulates ambitions to further improve its research and teaching offer.
It is worth noting that the ranking itself is a significant success – the overall European list includes only 33 universities from Poland, with the University of Gdańsk closing out the top ten. The Polish podium comprises the University of Gdańsk (the only Polish university in the European top 100, ranked 92nd), the Jagiellonian University in 122nd place, and the Warsaw University of Technology, ranked 211th. Considering only classical universities, the University of Gdańsk was ranked even higher, 6th in the national ranking.
Applying a filter that visualises the classification of Eastern European universities brings an interesting picture of Polish universities in our part of Europe, as both UW and UJ were on the podium, giving way only to Charles University in Prague. The position of the University of Gdańsk in this ranking is also high, taking 30th place in the region out of 133 universities. It is very pleasing that the top 30 Eastern European universities, according to QS, are dominated by Polish academies – as many as 10 out of the 30 best-ranked universities are Polish. There are also 8 Czech, 5 Hungarian, 3 Ukrainian, 2 Romanian and one each from Slovakia and Bulgaria. QS has classified universities from Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia in the Northern Europe group.
Full results of the QS World University Rankings: Europe 2024:
