The Emerging Europe and Central Asia University Rankings which since 2014 have been carried out by academic services company QS put the University of Latvia in 44th place followed by Riga Technical University in 55th, Riga Stradins University in 108th and the Latvian Agricultural University in joint 139th.
To add perspective, the University of Latvia is ranked between 700th and 750th worldwide by the same source.
The University of Latvia's rector, Indrikis Muiznieks, said "The QS rating is one of the most internationally recognized ratings. This is a very high score - the University ranks among the most prestigious in emerging Europe and central Asia."
He also added a claim that the University could be considered to be among the top 1.5% of regional universities based on an assertion that nearly 3,000 institutions were surveyed.
A release from the University of Latvia marking the achievement said that 18 countries were included in the top 100 places in the survey, According to the authors of the survey, 21 countries were included in total to produce the 250 rankings.
Latvijas Universitāte kā vienīgā no Latvijas ierindojas 1,5% reģiona valstu universitāšu vidū. https://t.co/p7y7xIHI9g pic.twitter.com/XHxQ6uWUs4
— LatvijasUniversitāte (@universitatelv) October 17, 2017
The highest-placed university in the Baltic states is the University of Tartu in Estonia in 3rd place.
Also in Estonia, Tallinn University of Technology is joint 28th and Tallinn University is 69th.
Meanwhile in Lithuania Vilnius University is 18th, Vilnius Gediminas Technical University is 41st and Kaunas University of Technology 51st.
A total of nine factors, including academic reputation, faculty-student ratio and international faculty/students are assessed to create the ranking, each of which contributes a certain proportion towards institutions’ overall scores.
Lomonosov Moscow State University is top of this year’s rankings, making it three in a row for the Russian university. It’s one of nearly 100 Russian universities in this year’s expanded ranking. Two others feature in the top 10: Novosibirsk State University (ranked second) and Saint Petersburg State University (ranked fourth). The highest climber in the top 10 is the Middle East Technical University, up five places to ninth.
21 different countries are represented in this year’s ranking of the best universities in emerging Europe and central Asia, which now features approximately 250 of the region’s best universities. For a more in-depth look at this year’s EECA University Rankings results, download our free supplement, available here.
QS is a private company employing around 250 people which says it "links high achievers from the graduate, MBA and executive communities around the world with leading business schools, postgraduate departments at universities and with employers, through websites, events, e-guides and technical solutions.''
