Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings

THE's ranking focuses primarily on the level of science and research at the university. The results of the research and education reputation surveys (together 33%) and bibliometric indicators (together 30%) have the greatest weight on the ranking. Data for the bibliometric indicators used to get drawn from the Web of Science database until 2014, but since 2015 they are being drawn from the Scopus database. Since 2023, the Citation impact as single bibliometric indicator has been expanded with further indicators such as Research strength, Research excellence and Research influence.

In the latest THE World University Rankings, published in 2023, MU ranked in 601^st to 800^th position. A total of 1,904 universities were ranked. In the national comparison, Masaryk University ranked 2nd behind the Charles University, followed by Palacký University Olomouc and Czech University of Life Sciences Prague.

THE WUR rankings indicators and weights

Subject rankings

In addition to the global rankings, THE also compiles rankings of universities in 11 focus areas: Arts & humanities, Business & economics, Clinical & health, Computer science, Education, Engineering, Law, Life sciences, Physical sciences, Psychology and Social sciences. These subject rankings are based on the same indicators as the main THE WUR rankings, but their weight in the final score differs, including across subjects.

THE Subject rRankings have been compiled since 2010 and initially presented only the top 50, later the top 100 institutions in any given field. For the first time MU appeared in THE subject tables in 2017, when the published positions were expanded to the top 500 institutions for some of the subjects. Masaryk University ranked in 301–400^th position in Arts & humanities, Clinical & health, and Life sciences and 401–500^th in Physical sciences. In the subject rankings, apart from MU, also UK and UPOL appeared among Czech schools that time. In 2018, the number of published positions was further expanded. Since, Masaryk University gets ranked in all relevant subjects - appearing in a total of 10 out of 11 subject rankings compiled by THE.

As for the latest subject rankings published in 2023 MU ranks appear as follows:

201–250 - Law
251–300 - Arts & humanities
401–500 - Psychology
401–500 - Social sciences
501–600 - Clinical & health
501–600 - Education
501–600 - Life sciences
501–600 - Physical sciences
601–800 - Business & economics
601–800 - Computer science

THE Impact rankings

Since 2019, THE has also been compiling THE Impact rankings, which assess the way universities fulfill the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Masaryk University joined the ranking for the first time in 2021, when it was ranked 401^st–600^th overall among 1,115 universities worldwide. The same position has also been taken in the latest ranking in 2023, despite the ever increasing competition – 301^st–400^th position among 1,591 world universities. A total of 7 Czech public universities and 1 private university appear in the fifth edition of THE Impact. MU is the fourth highest ranked Czech university overall, after Charles University, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague and Palacký University Olomouc.

MU is traditionally involved in the evaluation of 4 out of 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals. The best rankings in 2023 has been reached in the mandatory SDG 17 Partnership for the goals and in SDG 16 Peace, justice and strong institutions, ranked 201^st–300^th respectively. SDG 17 assesses the extent to which the university contributes to national or cross-sectoral dialogue on sustainable development issues, collaborates with local or national NGOs and research institutions in this area, offers courses to students on environmental topics, or engages in measurement and data collection on environmental and sustainable development issues. Goal 16 tracks publication acitivity on the topic, the level of cooperation between the university and the state, the application of democratic principles on campus, and also measures the proportion of university graduates with law degrees. Further, MU has been ranked 301^st–400^th in Goal 3 Health and Quality of Life and Goal 4 Quality Education.