Riga Technical University (RTU) is included in the 200+ best university group of the Europe Teaching Rankings 2019. This is the rating of the prestigious international rating agency THE (Times Higher Education), which uses student surveys as the main source of data for in-depth assessment of two criteria – learning and teaching. RTU has been included in this rating for the first time.
The ranking used a wide range of student surveys – 125,000 students were interviewed, including RTU students. The questions included in the surveys explain student engagement, outcomes, the diversity of of institutions’ environments, and the resources that universities have in order to teach effectively.
RTU performance in student engagement has been highly ranked. This criterion assesses student engagement in the learning process, student interaction, whether and to what extent students recommend their higher education institution to others, as well as the link between students and the labour market. Student engagement is the most important of all four criteria in the rating, as its share is 35% in total rating.
The diversity of RTU learning and teaching environment has also been highly ranked, which analyses the gender balance in academic staff, students, the proportion of foreign students, the participation of students in the Erasmus+ mobility program. The diversity of the learning environment accounts for 25% of the total rating, while the other two criteria – student outcomes and resources available for effective teaching – account for 20% each.
The University of Latvia (UL) has also been included in the ranking, which, likewise RTU, ranks in the group of 200+ higher education institutions. In three out of the four ranking criteria, RTU results are better than that of the UL.
The University of Oxford is number one, followed by the University of Cambridge (both from the UK) and the University of Navarra from Spain is ranked third. A total of 258 European universities have been ranked.
