University of the West of Scotland (UWS)continued to climb world rankings.

UWS is celebrating its second year in the Times Higher Education’s (THE) World University Rankings.

The latest results see UWS climb into the top 501- 600 category in the global ranking system, building on the 601 - 800 category in last year’s rankings.

The results also see the University jump four positions in the UK rankings to joint 60th out of a possible 93 institutions.

The World University Rankings assess 1,120 universities from 77 countries worldwide.

The organisation cites the rankings as: “…the only global performance tables that judge research-intensive universities across all their core missions: teaching, research, knowledge transfer and international outlook” to provide “…the most comprehensive and balanced comparisons, trusted by students, academics, university leaders, industry and governments”.

Commenting on the latest results, UWS Principal & Vice-Chancellor Professor Craig Mahoney said:

“With Times Higher Education citing around 20,000 universities in the world overall, being ranked in the top 501-600 of these is a considerable achievement for UWS.

"It is testament to the hard work and effort of colleagues across the institution, particularly with regard to the impact of our research activity and of our work in internationalisation.

"I’m immensely proud of what we have achieved; this is great news, especially when the scale and global weighting of the rankings are taken into account.”

Dr Waiyin Hatton, Chair of the University Court added: “This is truly fantastic news. Under the leadership of Principal and Vice-Chancellor Professor Craig Mahoney, together with the support of the Court and his capable leadership team, there has been great progress made in positioning the University.

"The latest THE World Rankings reflect that hard work and dedication.”

In compiling the rankings THE uses 13 performance indicators across teaching (the learning environment); research (volume, income and reputation); citations (research influence); international outlook (staff, students and research); and industry income (knowledge transfer).

Of particular note in UWS’ results, was the score attained for citations. As the University’s second highest rating, the rankings reveal the scope of UWS’ research influence by capturing the number of times a university’s published work is cited by scholars. UWS ranked 347th out of the 1100+ institutions in this category.

The University’s highest ranked area was for International Outlook – a ranking of 298th. International Outlook measures the ratios of domestic and international students and staff, in addition to levels of international collaboration.