By Annette Chrysostomou
The Times Higher Education has ranked the University of Cyprus (UCy) among the 351 to 400 top universities in the world.
Among European universities, the UCy was positioned at between 172 to 197.
The influential ‘Times Higher Education World University Rankings’ have been published for 12 consecutive years. The results are used by prospective students, businesses, state officials and other stakeholders worldwide.
First on the list this year is the California Institute of Technology, followed by Oxford, Stanford and Cambridge universities. The only Greek institution which is in the same group as Cyprus is the University of Crete, and no other Greek university is in the top 400.
“The fact that the University of Cyprus ranks among the 351 to 400 top universities in the world is a huge achievement for our country, but also for the University of Cyprus which managed after only 25 years of operation to be among organisations of scientific excellence,” a statement by the university said on Friday.
“This is a very important distinction for the University of Cyprus,” Constantinos Christofides, rector of the university said. “It is the result of a collective effort of the university community as a whole, students, graduates, and administrative and academic staff. It is an achievement that deserves to be celebrated, yet we are continuing to work methodically and steadily, committed to four principles: knowledge, research, innovation and entrepreneurship. The best lies ahead.”
He said the strategic objective of the university was to be in the topt 200 in the world. “We are creating the infrastructure; we continue to attract remarkable and talented people, we can do even better,” he added.
That was not the only good news for the institution this week.
On Wednesday, UCy was also placed in 76th position among 7,804 organisations which have received funding under the research and innovation Horizon 2020 programme.
“This is a very significant achievement, given that the success rate of the programme is less than 12 per cent. Furthermore, considering the size of the country’s population as a weighted factor, the Cyprus University is by far the first in Europe for the number of projects funded under the Horizon 2020 programme,” the university stated.
The European Commission recently published the projects and organisations that have received funding, referring to those submitted in 2014. Under the programme, €80 billion is available for projects within the EU from 2014 to 2020.
Cyprus secured € 9.8 million after having submitted 478 eligible proposals. Of these, 58 passed all evaluation criteria and 37 were funded. Cyprus is also the first of the EU member states regarding the number of submitted proposals with 850, followed by Luxemburg with 666.
UCy is currently involved in 128 research projects of the European Union and other externally funded projects, with a total funding amounting to €7.577.437 in 2014.
Christofides believes they can do even better in this respect as well as in the world rankings. “Members of the academic staff of our university continue their dynamic participation in European research programmes; and for the year 2015 I am confident that Cyprus will hold a higher position,” he said.
