Overview of THE Rankings

Overview of Times Higher Ranking (THE) Rankings

The Times Higher Education (THE) Ranking assess over 1500 institutions worldwide in a portfolio of comparative university rankings, assessing universities across a range of metrics including a university’s teaching, research, knowledge transfer, internationalisation and sustainability activities.

 

University of Galway Results

1. THE World University Rankings

The THE World University Rankings is one of the leading university ranking systems, ranking over 2000 universities across 115 countries, with an emphasis on the research mission. It assesses research-intensive universities across all of their core missions: teaching (the learning environment); research environment (volume, income and reputation); research quality (the outputs of research); industry (knowledge transfer) and international outlook (staff, students and research). Further information on THE WUR methodology can be found here.

In 2025 University of Galway was ranked at 351-400 by THE World University Rankings (published 2024).

University of Galway’s performance in the THE World University Rankings over 10 years is below;

THE Trend

A more detailed breakdown of results can be found on our Intranet here

2. THE Subject Rankings

The overall THE World University Ranking is accompanied by 11 subject-specific rankings known as the THE Subject Rankings each year.

The subject ranking is based on data submitted in the World Rankings mapped across eleven subject areas as outlined by THE, details on methodology available here

University of Galway’s rank in the 11 subjects in 2024 were as follows:

THE 2025 Subject Ranking Galway

See the full Subject Ranking results published in 2024 here.

3. THE University Impact Rankings

Launched in 2019, the THE University Impact Rankings were established to measure a university's progress and impact on the 17 United Nation's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

These Impact rankings evaluate 2,125 universities from 125 countries that demonstrate excellence in contributing to the global sustainable development, across their research, teaching and activities

The full methodology and 2024 results are detailed here

University of Galway has performed strongly in this ranking since its inception and in 2024 we obtained an overall Impact rank of 47th in the world, no 1 in Ireland.

Our rank in the 11 specific SDGs we submit for is as follows:

THE Impact 2024

 

More details on University of Galway's results are available on our intranet here.

News

12th March 2025

QS World University Ranking by subject 2025: University of Galway achieved a global rank in 25 subjects, up from 24 in 2025, with a top 100 Global Rank in 2 subjects.

9th October 2024

University of Galway ranked in the 351-400 range in THE World University Rankings (WUR) 2025 edition. 

10th July 2024

University of Galway is ranked within the top 100 Universities in Europe for the second year in a row - University of Galway ranked 98th in Europe out of 685 institutions across 42 European locations in the QS World University Rankings: Europe 2025

12th June 2024

University of Galway maintained its global top 50 rank in the 6th edition of the Times Higher Education (THE) World IMPACT Rankings 2024, with a global rank of 47 (no. 1 in Ireland) out of a total  of 1,705 institutions from 125 countries across the World. It also maintained its top 50 global rankings in five SDGs.  

 

4th June 2024

QS World University Ranking 2025: University of Galway ranked 273rd in the world, out of ~1,500 global universities. 

 

10th April 2024 

QS World University Subject Rank 2024: University of Galway  achieved a global rank in 24 subjects, up from 23 in 2023, with a Top 100 Global Rank in 3 subjects. 

 

5th December 2023

University of Galway is ranked 120 in the second year of the QS Sustainability Ranking, up from 161-170 in 2022. 

 

27th September 2023

University of Galway retains it's global rank of 301-350 in the Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings 2024. 

 

20th September 2023

University of Galway is ranked 98th in Europe out of 690 institutions across 42 European locations in the inaugural QS World University Rankings: Europe 

 

27th June 2023

University of Galway is ranked 289th out of ~ 1500 institutions worldwide in the QS World university Rankings. 

 

1st June 2023

University of Galway continued to climb in the  5th edition of the Times Higher Education (THE) World IMPACT Rankings 2023, andhas a global rank of 34 (no. 1 in Ireland, up from 47 in 2022) out of a total  of 1,591 institutions from 112 countries across the World.

SDG Logo

22nd March 2023

QS World University Subject Rank 2023: University of Galway achieved a global rank in 23 Subjects, up from 22 last year - with Performing Arts at University of Galway achieiving a global rank of 101-120 for the first time. The subject of English at University of Galway also broke into the top 100 in the world, achieving a global subject rank of 91.