Standards of third-level education in Ireland may be slipping, according to a new report that has seen the country's top universities drop down an international ranking list.

The Times Higher Education University Rankings for 2011 saw both University College Dublin (UCD) and Trinity College fall out of the list of the world's 100 best institutions, while most other Irish universities also dropped in the table, RTE reports.

Publishers of the rankings put the decline down to an increase in the ratio of students to teachers, due to budget cuts at a time when more young people are heading to university.

Trinity fell by 40 places to 117th in the list, while UCD saw its position slide by over 60 positions to 159th.

They are now the only top universities in the top 300, as University College Cork and NUI Galway dropped further down the table.

All three top-ranked universities were in the US, with the California Institute of Technology taking the top spot, ahead of Harvard and Stanford, which were joint second.

Written by Donal Walsh
 

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