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Trinity makes it back into world's top 150 universities after error kept it out of rankings

Trinity College Dublin came in at 131st in the world rankings.

TRINITY COLLEGE DUBLIN has been announced as the only Irish university to make it into the world’s top 150 this year, but an error in the data it supplied to the rankings body meant that it hasn’t been rated as highly as it should have over the past couple of years.

For 2016/17, Trinity has been ranked as 131st in the world.

It wasn’t ranked in the last round of Times Higher Education World University rankings because of an error in the documentation it supplied to Times Higher Education (THE).

When they were excluded from the rankings which were announced last September, a spokesperson for Trinity College told TheJournal.ie said it was working closely with THE to resolve the issue which is a result of “underestimating research income”.

The rankings judge different universities based on their citations, industry income, international outlook, research and teaching.

A statement from Trinity today said that they had “discovered an error in its returns and undertook an audit of data”.

This error “incorrectly depressed Trinity’s ranking”, they said.

When they drew the error to the THE’s attention, their rankings have been changed to reflect this.

This means that Trinity is ranked 131st in the world this year, and came in 101st place in 2015-16.

Dean of Research, Professor John Boland, said: “It is good news for the University and good news for Ireland which now more so than ever needs to promote and nurture the success of flagship institutions with a truly global reach.

That said, we have still dropped 30 places in a single year. This amounts to a 30% drop in rank and crystallises the international headwinds facing the Irish university sector following a decade of neglect and chronic underfunding.

“If the Government expects excellence from the universities and the capacity to create the sort of skilled workforce needed in a post-Brexit world, it must begin to invest in education once again.”

The results for Ireland weren’t positive in the THE World University Rankings for 2016-17, with no other university making it into the top 100.

The following was provided before Trinity’s mark was reaffirmed.

rankings Times Higher Education World University Rankings Times Higher Education World University Rankings

Phil Baty, the editor of the rankings, said at the time that the statistics represented “bad news for Ireland”. He said:

The country’s best universities are struggling in the most comprehensive and the most exacting of all the global rankings. While the root of the problem is the increased competition among the world’s elite universities, particularly those in Asia, it seems clear that the major funding cuts endured by Ireland’s universities are causing problems.

Read: Irish universities fail to make the top 200 in global rankings

Read: Tusla ‘in the process of apologising’ to McCabe over false sex abuse allegation

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27 Comments
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    Mute Lou Tennant
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    Oct 28th 2015, 10:36 AM

    If I ever met he creator of candy crush, it would take all my strength and willpower not to strangle them with my bare hands

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    Mute Valentino R
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    Oct 28th 2015, 10:42 AM

    or beat them to death with a stick of rock.

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    Mute Sternn
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    Oct 29th 2015, 4:53 AM

    If you ever read the history of the game and the company which made it you most certainly would. They ripped off a free game called Candy Swipe which was released years before Candy Crush by a man named Albert Ransom. King.com robbed his idea, then trademarked it, and then sued him out of existence. Albert Ransom who made CandySwipe was trying to raise money and awareness for leukemia as his mother was diagnosed with it.

    Best part – that was not the first time King.com had done this to other small game developers, but due to US law they have robbed other games from smaller developers, changed one small feature, got a copyright on it, then sued the original creator for the rights and won thanks to their shady solicitors and mental IP laws in America.

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    Mute James Darcy
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    Oct 28th 2015, 10:44 AM

    I loved Facebook but it’s constant look for more interaction and invites and likes and all the other insecure BS drove me insane. Longing for the no-frills social network.

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    Mute Amanda Horan
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    Oct 28th 2015, 1:02 PM

    Try twitter. At the minute it has less frills but it will eventually go the same way.

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    Mute Mike Clinton
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    Oct 28th 2015, 10:58 AM

    If only my life was so boring that a few game invites infuriated me. Just ignore them, it’s a social media site .

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    Mute Dread Pirate Robots
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    Oct 28th 2015, 10:53 AM

    James, we just call it Twitter.

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    Mute Imogene O'Brien
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    Oct 28th 2015, 11:18 AM

    Friends have become enemies over candy crush invites. Family members have been blocked because of candy crush invites.

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    Mute Barbara Christopher
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    Oct 28th 2015, 10:47 AM

    YESSSSSSS

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    Mute Kevin Maughan
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    Oct 28th 2015, 11:44 AM

    Thank Christ.

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    Mute Joe Harte
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    Oct 28th 2015, 12:15 PM

    It still isn’t enough to keep people fro using facebook the way they did say 5 years ago.

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