Baltic States – CIS, Education and Science, Estonia, EU – Baltic States, Latvia, Rating

The ranking list has been compiled by the international consultation firm Quacquarelli Symonds (QS).

QS has been ranking the best universities from emerging Europe and Central Asia since 2014. Lomonosov Moscow State University has been the first from the start. The University of Tartu has been among the top universities in all years, but this year's second place is the highest so far.

"For the university, rising in international rankings has never been a goal in itself, but a side effect of working towards our substantial goals,” said Vice Rector for development of the University of Tartu Erik Puura. "The new strategic plan of the University of Tartu, for instance, includes some objectives that may improve the position of the university but also some that do not contribute to that in any way. But I must admit that such ratings are nice to read. They demonstrate that the high level of the University of Tartu stands out internationally," Puura added.

The University of Latvia and Riga Technical University (RTU) have made it to the top-60 in the university rankings for the Emerging Europe and Central Asia Region published by Quacquarelli Symonds (QS), one of the world's most prestigious providers of university rankings, on Wednesday.

The University of Latvia has dropped from 39th position last year to 41st position this year and RTU has slipped from 54th to 57th place.

Other Latvian universities featuring in the rankings include Riga Stradins University (RSU), which has climbed from 141st place to 121st, the Latvian University of Life Sciences and Technologies has dropped from 174th place to 211st-220th place, Daugavpils University has fallen from 231st-240th place to 251st-300th place and the Transport and Telecommunication Institute has moved down from 301st-350th place to 351st-400st place in the rankings. 

Saint Petersburg State University took the third place. Other Estonian universities in the ranking are Tallinn University of Technology (dropped to the 31st place compared to last year's 22nd) and Tallinn University that has retained its 71st place among the 400 universities listed.

The ranking list includes universities from 30 countries. Apart from Estonia and Russia, only universities from Czechia and Poland made it to the top ten. The second among Baltic universities was Vilnius University with its 20th place.

When ranking the universities, QS considers ten indicators: academic reputation, accounting for 30% of the score, employer reputation, 20%, faculty-student ratio, 10%, papers per faculty 10%, citations per paper, 5%, international faculty and international students, 2.5% each, academic staff with a PhD, 5%, web impact, 10%, and international research network, 10%.

The QS EECA University Rankings 2021 are available on the QS website. In the QS World University Rankings published in June, the University of Tartu holds its highest position ever, the 285th.