The main building of the University of Latvia. Photo: Toms Grīnbergs, UL Department of Communication

This year, the University of Latvia (UL) has received an assessment in two new disciplines in one of the most prestigious rankings of world universities – Times Higher Education World University Rankings by subject. In the subject Arts and Humanities, UL has received an estimable result, – the place in the group of 501–600 leading universities, as well as the assessment in the subject of Computer Science. The highest performance ranking of UL consistently remains in the Clinical, Pre-clinical and Health subject. Overall, UL has received an assessment in six subjects out of the 11 contained in THE Rankings.

In the Clinical, Pre-clinical and Health subject, UL is ranked in the group of 301–400 leading universities. Compared to 2021, UL has received a higher rating in Life Sciences, rising to the 401st–500th place. UL is ranked in the group 601–800 in the subjects of Computer Sciences (ranked for the first time), Physical Sciences and Social Sciences.

“For several consecutive years, UL has been receiving a high assessment in the field of Clinical, Pre-clinical and Health sciences. Obtaining a high place once is much easier than retaining it. We saw that the interest of young people in medical studies increased significantly this year, which, in my opinion, is in line with the observations of the creators of THE Rankings – this subject has been cast into the spotlight, individual and public health as a whole has become a very important topic since the pandemic, and will remain on the agenda for a long time. Of course, we are pleased with the evaluation in the other subjects of THE Rankings, especially with entering in the two new subjects – Computer Sciences, as well as Arts and Humanities. I am sure that it is within the power of UL academic community to reach significant quantitative and qualitative achievements in order to show the performance of our university in all the subjects of THE Rankings,” thus UL Rector Professor Indriķis Muižnieks evaluates the results.

In THE Rankings by subject, UL has obtained the highest position among Latvian higher education institutions in all the subjects in which it is evaluated. UL has not been evaluated in the subject Engineering and Technology, where Riga Technical University is ranked 601st–800th. Riga Stradiņš University and Latvia University of Life Sciences and Technologies also were ranked in several disciplines.

The subject rankings are based on the same range of 13 performance indicators used in the overall THE World University Rankings, but Physical Sciences and Life Sciences methodology is recalibrated for each subject to suit the individual fields. The performance indicators are grouped into five areas:

  • Teaching (the learning environment): 27.5%
  • Research (volume, income and reputation): 27.5%
  • Citations (research influence): 35%
  • International outlook (staff, students and research) 7.5%
  • Industry income (knowledge transfer): 2.5%

In all the subjects included in THE Rankings, the universities of Great Britain and the USA have received the highest results: Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard, Princeton, Berkeley, Stanford, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). It is interesting to note that MIT also received one of the highest rankings in the humanities. Among the higher education institutions of the Baltic countries, the University of Tartu ranks highest in several subjects.

 The Times Higher Education World University Rankings is among the world's three most influential university rankings, published for the 19th year. THE ranking by subject encompasses 11 individual subject rankings: Arts and Humanities; Clinical, Pre-clinical and Health; Engineering and Technology; Life Sciences; Physical Sciences; Social Sciences; Law; Psychology; Education; Computer Science and Business and Economics.  

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