THE World University Rankings
The latest edition of THE World University Rankings includes 2,191 educational institutions from 115 countries around the world. Published since 2010, the rankings went through a major revision in 2023 and were expanded to include a number of new indicators, which are now grouped into five thematic categories. The rankings assess the quality of education and research, the state of the research environment, the extent of internationalization, and the scientific impact. However, the results of two reputation surveys and the average citation rate of scientific publications according to the Scopus database (FWCI) continue to carry the most weight in the overall assessment.
Masaryk University ranked 601st–800th in this year's assessment. It performs best in the pillar of Research Environment (430th position). It also ranked among the top 500 institutions in the world in the International Outlook category (487th position). The most significant improvement is seen in the Research Quality category (970th position), with a 60-place rise compared to the previous evaluation cycle and improved performance in all indicators within this category.
Traditionally, the strongest sub-indicator for MU remains Research influence (score of 92.3 out of a possible 100), which measures the citation rate of the institution's publications in a narrow group of highly cited sources (according to Scopus). Next is International students (score of 84), which measures the proportion of foreign students at the university, and Research Excellence (score of 79.1), measuring the number of the institution's scientific outputs in the top 10% according to the FWCI indicator.
The University of Oxford retained the top spot in THE WUR ranking for the tenth time in a row, followed by MIT in second place and Princeton University and the University of Cambridge sharing third place. Eighteen universities from the Czech Republic were ranked, with Charles University in first place (401st–500th overall). Masaryk University shares second place and 601st–800th position with Czech University of Life Sciences in Prague.
Methodology:
THE World University Rankings focuses primarily on the quality of science and research at a university. A total of 18 ranking indicators are grouped into 5 categories. The results of two reputation surveys, conducted directly by Times Higher Education, have the greatest weight (33% in total) for the overall ranking. Respondents select the best institutions in research and in education. Four of the bibliometric indicators together make up the second third of the ranking (30% in total). Until 2014, the data for the bibliometric indicators were sourced from the Web of Science database; since 2015, the source has been the Scopus database.
For the majority of the indicators, input information is provided directly by the evaluated institutions. These include the numbers of staff, students, and graduates at various levels of disaggregation, as well as some financial indicators such as the institution's total income and industrial research income. Thus, through good quality reporting, an institution can influence up to 27% of the overall assessment.
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THE WUR Indicators
29.5% Teaching
15.0% Teaching reputation
4.5% Student staff ratio
2.0% Doctorate bachelor ration
5.5% Doctorate staff ratio
2.5% Institutional income -
29% Research Environment
18.0% Research reputation
5.5% Research income
5.5% Research productivity -
30% Research Quality
15.0% Citation impact
5.0% Research strength
5.0% Research excellence
5.0% Research influence -
4% Industry
2.0% Industry income
2.0% Patents -
7.5% International Outlook
2.5% International students
2.5% International staff
2.5% International co-authorship
0.0% Studying aproad