DCU rises to highest ever position in THE World University Rankings
Dublin City University has again risen in the 2026 Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings, to its highest position ever. It is now ranked among the top 350 universities in the world. DCU was ranked in the top 400 in the 2025 rankings.
Speaking about the 2026 rankings, Prof Daire Keogh, President of Dublin City University, said:
“The University’s rise in the global rankings is a strong affirmation of DCU’s commitment to its mission, ‘to transform lives and societies’. The advancement of our research impact and reputation is one of DCU’s key strategic objectives, so I am particularly pleased that THE has ranked the university number one in Ireland for Research Quality.
As always, our achievements and progress are thanks to the dedication of the DCU staff community. I want to thank my colleagues for the hard work and commitment that make outcomes like this possible.”
Prof John Doyle, Vice President for Research, said:
“As a growing and still young university, it is a tremendous endorsement of our staff, that DCU is now ranked in the top 350 universities in the world, and in the top three of Ireland’s public universities. Research Quality measures the influence and impact of our published research, and by this measure, not only is DCU number one in Ireland but 138th in the world.
Our objective will be to use these results to develop our research reputation, and to further strengthen the impact of our research in meeting the serious economic and social challenges facing Ireland and Europe at this time.”
About the Times Higher Education World University Rankings
The THE World University Rankings provide the definitive list of the world’s best universities, with an emphasis on the research mission. It is the only global university league table to judge 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). It uses 18 carefully calibrated performance indicators to provide the most comprehensive and balanced comparisons. The overall list is accompanied by 11 subject-specific rankings.
The rankings also draw on the rich database behind the World University Rankings to publish a series of regional and thematic rankings, offering deeper insights into a wider range of universities against a wider range of missions.
These include: Arab University Rankings, Asia University Rankings, Latin America University Rankings, World Reputation Rankings and Young University Rankings.
A record 2,191 institutions were ranked by THE this year: the largest number to date.
You can read more about this and previous year's rankings on the THE website.
Dublin City University was also recently nominated for two THE Awards:
- Most Innovative Teacher of the Year - Dr Brian Freeland
- Technological or Digital Innovation of the Year - DCU Futures, in collaboration with the DCU Academic Systems Unit, Symplicity, and the DCU Teaching Enhancement Unit for the pioneering skills platform, myskills.dcu.ie
The awards take place in November in the Edinburgh International Conference Centre.