Four of Ireland’s universities have slipped down in the latest world university rankings.The new QS World University Rankings for 2022 saw NUI Galway drop 20 places to 258th overall, University College Cork (UCC) drop 12 places to 298th, and Dublin City University (DCU) drop 51 places to 490th.Maynooth University also fell to a lower band (751 – 800) than it placed in in previous years.
University College Dublin (UCD) bucked the trend however, and climbed four places to 173rd overall. 
The University of Limerick’s position also rose slightly – from the 511 – 520 band last year, to the 501 – 510 band this year.
Trinity College Dublin remained the countrys top-scoring university and placed 101st on the global rankings the same position it held last year.
Technical University Dublin stayed in the same 810 – 1,000 band it ranked in last year.
The QS rankings provide a comparative analysis of the performance of the worlds top 1,300 universities across 97 different countries.
In the latest global rankings, Dublin City University climbed four placed to 173rd. File Picture: Colin Keegan/Collins Dublin
The rankings are based upon key indicators such as the international faculty ratio, international student ratio, the academic and employer reputation of the university, the student to staff ratio and the number of citations per faculty.
Each category carries a weighted score giving each institution a mark out of 100.
Globally, the top ten universities in the world can be found in the US, the UK and Switzerland.
Top ten
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) placed top of the rankings and the University of Oxford placed second.
Stanford University and the University of Cambridge tied for third.
Harvard University, California Institute of Technology (Caltech), and Imperial College London placed fifth, sixth, and seventh, respectively, while ETH Zurich Swiss Federal Institute of Technology and University College London tied for eighth.
The University of Chicago rounded out the top ten.
Speaking this afternoon, Trinitys Provost Dr Patrick Prendergast said she was pleased to see her university retain its position.
After an enormously challenging year, this ranking makes me proud of our excellent students and faculty, whose scholarship and achievements are critical to our continued success at a global level,” she said.
Trinity scored particularly well on academic reputation, reflecting the success of the entire College community in prioritising excellence in research. 
Dr Prendergast said Trinity would likely have performed even better were it not for the relatively high staff-student ratios which are common across Irish institutions.
I know the Government has plans to invest more in third-level education and I hope that this issue will slowly be resolved, she said. 

• The full QS World University Rankings for 2022 can be found here