The University of Luxembourg dropped to 25th place in the latest edition of the THE young universities ranking, receiving its lowest score for teaching Library photo: Nader Ghavami

The University of Luxembourg dropped to 25th place in the latest edition of the THE young universities ranking, receiving its lowest score for teaching Library photo: Nader Ghavami

The University of Luxembourg is listed among the top 25 young universities in the world in a Times Higher Education ranking but the institution has dropped from 12th place just two years ago.

The Times Higher Education (THE) young universities ranking lists the world’s best universities that are 50 years old or younger, taking into account 13 different indicators from admitted students and research income from industry to papers published.

Despite being in 25th place, the university has lost out to competitors over the years, dropping from 20th place last year and 12th in 2020.

Luxembourg’s university had an overall score of 58.4 out of 100, with its best ranking in the international outlook category (99.5), followed by citations (65.7), research (56.9) and industry income (47.3). Its worst score was in the teaching category (43.3).

An external audit last year had concluded that the university must place on developing its teaching activities. The higher education institution describes itself as a “multilingual, international research university”.

Compared to last year, the University of Luxembourg lost overall points, down from 59.8, and even though it did better on industry income and research, its score dropped in the other categories--citations, international outlook and teaching.

The best young university according to THE is Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL) Research University with an overall score of 76.6, followed by Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. The top five also include the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Erasmus University Rotterdam and Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

Fourteen of the 25 top universities are located in Europe, seven in Asia and four in Australia.

PSL Research University, which topped the ranking, also led in the teaching category, at 70.3 points. Luxembourg was third overall for international outlook, behind Macau University of Science and Technology and City University of Hong Kong. Nanyang Technological University in Singapore topped the research indicator while Asia University in Taiwan and Khalifa University in the United Arab Emirates attracted most industry income.

Nine universities managed to achieve a top score of 100 in the citations rubric. The young universities ranking this year included 539 universities, up from 475 last year.

In the latest --the Times Higher Education World University Rankings--the University of Luxembourg ranked in a group of institutions from 251st to 300th place in a survey that included 1,662 universities in total.

The government in January signed a with the university, which stands to receive €908m until 2025 to help fund its teaching and research activities.