The University has risen 16 places in The Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings for 2020, published this week, from 181st to 165th position.
The rankings assess universities on five different pillars – teaching (weighted 30%), research (30%), citations (30%), international outlook (7.5%) and industry income (2.5%). Some of these measures utilise data from a global survey of academics who are asked to identify 15 institutions globally, producing ‘the best teaching’ or ‘the best research’ in their subject area.
The University’s ranking has improved in the three pillars with the biggest weighting on the overall score – teaching, research and citations. The most significant impact has been driven by an improvement in the Reputation Rankings for both teaching and research, derived from a survey of 10,000 global academics from a range of subject areas.
The improvement in this year’s ranking reflects an improvement in the University’s reputation, has been mirrored by improvements in all major domestic league tables in 2019. Amongst UK institutions, Liverpool achieved the 2nd largest rise in the rankings moving from 27th to 23rd.
Professor Dame Janet Beer, Vice-Chancellor, said: “I am delighted to see the University improve its position in these rankings. This outcome is a testament to all our academic and professional staff who are doing so much to further enhance the performance of the University in education and research.
“It’s important for us to maintain this momentum across all areas of Strategy 2026, particularly as we move towards REF 2021.”
The 2020 rankings, published in September 2019 collated data for almost 1,400 institutions worldwide, an increase from 1,258 institutions at last publication. The methodology has remained largely unchanged for several years and can be accessed via the THE’s website.