Aberdeen soars to 137 in world university rankings

The University of Aberdeen’s standing in the world has strengthened enormously, according to a new guide listing the world’s best institutions.

The University leapt to 137th spot in the Times Higher World University Rankings, rising 58 places and up 130 places on the year before - the biggest advance of any UK university in the Top 200 over the past two years.

Just five Scottish universities are included in the guide – Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Glasgow, St Andrews and Dundee.

Professor C Duncan Rice, Principal and Vice-Chancellor at the University, said he was deeply proud of his colleagues and their outstanding contribution which has helped improve the University’s latest ranking.

He said: “Universities are increasingly being judged on their international competitive position, and this news confirms that the University of Aberdeen continues to make tremendous progress in competing with the world’s best institutions.

“This is in part due to an unprecedented £9million-plus investment in Aberdeen’s intellectual leadership, with over 70 senior professors and many junior colleagues from all corners of the globe appointed in the last four years alone, joining our already powerfully able academic community

“Our ambition is to become a top 100 university and this shows we are moving rapidly towards that goal. To this end, a further recruitment campaign will begin later this month to attract even more of the world’s best scholars to Aberdeen.

“Furthermore, through our £230m capital investment programme, which includes plans to build one of the world’s finest university libraries, Aberdeen has made a bold statement about matching the quality of its academic community with investment in major new facilities.

“Part of the ranking measures universities’ attractiveness to international staff and students. Aberdeen fared particularly well in both with the former scoring only a few points fewer than Harvard University, the No.1 ranked institution. This demonstrates how serious Aberdeen is about globalisation and recognises us as a place where ambitious and mobile academics want to be”

For more information visit: http://www.topuniversities.com/worlduniversityrankings/ or www.thes.co.uk