4 Mar 2020
Quacquarelli Symonds World University Rankings 2020 put RVC top in UK and Europe, but London school loses last year’s world number one crown to University of California, Davis.
David Woodmansey
Job Title
The RVC has once again been named as the top veterinary school in the UK and Europe, but lost last year’s world number one crown to former title holder the US University of California, Davis (UC Davis).
The results – placing the RVC second best in the world behind UC Davis – have been published in the Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University Rankings 2020.
The rankings feature 1,368 institutions from 83 locations ranked across 48 subjects, providing the most comprehensive global overview of higher education performance at discipline level.
QS assessed 1,496 programmes across the world that offer courses in veterinary science, with the RVC placing second out of 427 institutions.
Rankings are determined by a range of criteria, such as academic reputation, research impact and number of citations, as well as employer reputation per subject. Responses from more than 94,000 academics and 45,000 global employers were used to calculate the results.
Notably, the RVC received a perfect score for the academic reputation indicator (100) and the school’s outstanding contributions to research was recognised in a high citations per paper metric (98.4), which evaluates research impact.
RVC principal Stuart Reid said: “Trading first and second places with our friends at UC Davis globally, we are still very pleased to retain our ranking as highest placed veterinary school outside the US.
“With a strong showing from schools in continental Europe and other newcomers to the top 10, the QS rankings emphasise once again the highly competitive nature of our subject internationally.
“We are pleased to record the highest score for academic reputation and an excellent performance in our research impact, and I congratulate Dean Lairmore – himself an honorary fellow of the RVC – and his colleagues at UC Davis on regaining the top spot, but serve notice that we will be seeking to trade again in 2021.”
