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By: Beth Kocher Gormley, PR and Communications Manager, UCD College of Business
(with materials from David Kearns, Digital Journalist / Media Officer, UCD University Relations)

The latest QS World University Rankings has seen University College Dublin rise 45 places to be ranked 126 in the world.

The sharp increase for 2025 marks the second year in a row of upward movement for UCD in these rankings.

“UCD’s greatly improved position in the ranking reflects the dedication and the achievements of our faculty, researchers and staff,” said UCD President Professor Orla Feely.

“It is very heartening to see that our score has increased in eight of the nine components of the ranking, showing the breadth as well as the depth of our achievements.”

“The result reflects significant and continuing investment by UCD in its education, research and physical environment in recent years, and on the strong employment outcomes and achievements of our graduates,” said Professor Tony Brabazon, Dean of UCD College of Business.

The nine indicators used by the QS World University Rankings to measure performance are: International Faculty, Sustainability, Employment Outcomes, International Research Network, International Students, Academic Reputation, Citations per Faculty, Employer Reputation, and Faculty Student Ratio.

UCD was ranked number one in Ireland and 50th in the world for Sustainability, and number one in Ireland and 77th in the world for Employment Outcomes. QS measures employment outcomes as a reflection on the ability of institutions to ensure a high level of employability for their graduates, while also nurturing future leaders who go on to make an impact in their respective fields. 

For Sustainability, it evaluates the social and environmental impact of universities as centres of education and research. 

For the 2025 edition, the most improved indicators for UCD over the previous year were Sustainability, up 154 places, International Research Network, up 97 places, and International Students, which rose by 97. 

The University also saw a rise of 56 places in Citations per Faculty – its highest score in this indicator since 2018.

Academic Reputation is the most heavily weighted individual metric at 30% in the QS WUR, and here UCD moved up 4 places.

For its latest World University Rankings edition, QS evaluated some 5,663 institutions and ranked 1,503 globally.

There were no changes to the methodology or weightings used between the 2024 and 2025 rankings.