Palacký University Olomouc has occupied the 519th position in the recently issued US News – Best Global Universities Rankings. Compared to the previous year, it has fallen by 30 places; however, 1,500 universities have been ranked in the international ranking, which is 250 more than last year. In domestic competition, UP ranked third behind Charles University and Czech Technical University. In addition, Olomouc’s university has been listed for the first time in the field of social sciences.
“Palacký University has maintained its third position among domestic universities and is in the global competition almost reaching the threshold of the first 500 universities, despite the growing number of schools included in the rankings. According to several indicators, we are improving in certain aspects,” said UP Rector Jaroslav Miller. The ranking listed 12 Czech and Moravian universities; since the previous year, the University of West Bohemia in Pilsen and the University of Pardubice have been added.
The rankings employ data from the Clarivate Analytics InCites database, formerly Thomson Reuters. The evaluation is carried out according to 13 indicators, which monitor the performance of universities, especially in science, research, and international cooperation. It also includes surveying the reputation of universities in the international context. Palacký University scored best in the Regional Research Reputation indicator, ranking 147th in the world. Within the past few months, UP has moved up nine places in this indicator.
“The year-on-year comparison of individual parameters showed that UP has reserves in focusing on more systematic steps in some of its activities, such as greater efforts to register international conferences held at UP at the Conference Proceedings Citation Index on the Web of Science; and the strategy of publishing monographs should be reconsidered, since we have noticed a decrease in their numbers, etc.,” said Hana Marešová, Vice-Rector for Strategic Planning and Quality.
In the ranking according by discipline, not only natural but also social sciences are listed. “In addition to the traditionally successful disciplines in Natural Sciences, I consider our position in the field of Social Sciences and Public Health to be a significant success, ranking 391st. We have achieved this result for the first time, the only one among Czech universities. We would like to thank our employees for this success,” added Vice-Rector Marešová.
UP has also placed for the first time in Clinical Medicine, ranking 675th. It has shown year-on-year improvements in Biology and Biochemistry and has jumped 15 places in Physics (278th in the world).
Harvard University, followed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford University, have maintained their traditional places at the forefront of the global rankings. The overall results are available here.