Rankings: The 9 best universities in Ireland for 2025/2026
The Campanile of Trinity Co... by Nico Kaiser, CC BY 2.0, modified
Known for its welcoming culture and outstanding universities, Ireland attracts tens of thousands of students from abroad every year.
Much like the country’s booming economy, Irish universities have also improved their positions in world university rankings in the past 10 years. Most of the Ireland’s top-ranked institutions are located in the capital Dublin, including the highly renowned Trinity College Dublin (TCD) and University College Dublin (UCD), firmly positioned among the top 100 in Europe.
Beyond the traditional research-driven universities, there are also a large number of well-regarded Institutes of Technology as well as private colleges. Together, they offer several thousand Bachelors and Masters programmes in any subject you can imagine.
The QS World University Rankings are among the most important, most-referenced rankings. The QS ranking relies heavily on its academic survey, asking thousands of academics worldwide about the reputation of universities.
The Times Higher Education World University Rankings (or the THE Rankings for short) compile a wide range of statistics. Equal weight is put on teaching quality, research excellence, and research impact through citations (meaning how often a university’s research is referenced elsewhere).
The Academic Ranking of World Universities by Shanghai Jiao Tong University (often just Shanghai Ranking, or ARWU) focuses on research output and quality, for example measured by the number of published and cited scientific papers and the number of staff or alumni winning the Nobel Prize or Fields Medal.
As an international student in Ireland, you’re guaranteed the warmest of welcomes in an inviting and multicultural setting. Although just a small country, its dozens of universities and colleges offer many thousand study programmes, catering to every academic or professional path.
Read more about studying in Ireland
