Agricultural sciences at University College Dublin has been placed fifth in Europe, and 19th globally, according to one world ranking.
UCD is the only Irish university to feature in the top 50, in a ranking published by American website US News & World Report, which publishes a list of the best universities and colleges annually.
The university was also ranked third in the world for institutions with the most highly cited academic papers.
Prof. Alexander Evans, dean of agricultural sciences at the university, said: “This ranking is an achievement we are very proud of.
It reflects the hard work and commitment by our faculty, staff and students.
“Looking at the elements that make up the US News ranking, it is noteworthy that UCD’s normalised citation impact, and the number of highly cited papers that are among the top one percent most cited in the area, rank 7th and 3rd in the world respectively,” he added.
Over 250 universities all over the world were considered in the ranking, which was compiled by data from the Clarivate Analytics’ Academic Reputation Survey, which profiles the world’s leading universities and research institutions.
Prof. Evans said that agricultural science is growing in importance which, he added, makes the accolade for UCD even more significant.
“The importance of agricultural science in society is increasing steadily and UCD is pleased to be acknowledged as a world leader in the area,” he added.