Commenting on the KTU’s achievement, Dr Lolita Jurkšienė, Director of Strategy and Quality Management at KTU, says that it is crucial to consider several factors in this context.
“Competition among strong universities worldwide is only increasing, and at least 20 new strong institutions are added to the rankings every year. Therefore, for universities in small countries and relatively small universities, even trying to maintain their positions becomes a challenge,” emphasises Jurkšienė.
Student employability rank is the best
The most significant change KTU achieved this year was in the assessment of students’ employment outcomes – the university is currently ranked 491st in the world in this criterion. KTU is also ranked among the top 500 universities in the world in terms of international students, which measures the ratio of international students to all students studying at the university, and employer reputation.
KTU has achieved a significant positive change in the sustainability criterion, which reflects the university’s contribution to the consistent development of social and environmental impact in the areas of studies, research and organisational management.
“Indeed, although this is an international ranking, where we usually compare ourselves with the best universities in Europe and the world, we are very happy with the results we achieved in the national context,” emphasises KTU Director of Strategy and Quality Management.
The best in Lithuania by the criteria marking research quality
In terms of citations per faculty, KTU is distinguished as the best Lithuanian university.
“This is one of the most important ranking indicators, showing the high international level, quality and added value of the University’s research. In addition, KTU is ranked second in the country in four out of 9 criteria: academic reputation, employer reputation, international research network, sustainability,” says Jurkšienė.
The QS WUR ranks the world’s universities according to the following criteria: academic reputation (30%), reputation among employers (15%), student-faculty ratio (10%), number of citations (20%), international research network (5%), ratio of international academic staff to international students (5%), employability performance (5%) and sustainability (5%).
This year, QS WUR evaluated 5,663 institutions and 1,503 universities from all over the world met the criteria and were ranked. 21 institutions were ranked for the first time.