By Christine Lavelle
SCOTLAND’S highest ranking university has lost its place in the world’s top 20 – dropping two places to number 22.
The University of Edinburgh was voted joint 20th alongside ETH Zurich (Swiss Federal Institute), and while their counterparts have gone up two to 18, Edinburgh has slipped two places.
But the university is still higher than it was in 2007 and 2008 when the 400-year-old institution sat at number 23 for two consecutive years.
And in 2006 it was ranked number 33, which shows a vast improvement.
A spokesman from the University of Edinburgh said: “We are please that we are consistently recognised as one of the top universities in the world.”
The University of Edinburgh was founded in 1583, making it one of Scotland’s ancient universities.
It has 22 schools in three colleges – Humanities & Social Science, Medicine & Veterinary Medicine, and Science & Engineering.
With more than students 22,000 enrolled, it has the largest proportion of international students of any Scottish university.
In the QS World University Rankings Results for 2010 – which lists the top 200 internationally – St Andrews University was the only other in Scotland to make the cut.
However, the Fife-based university also saw its ranking drop from 87 to 95, and is down again on 2008 when it was voted 83.
St Andrews is Scotland’s first university and the third oldest in the UK, dating back to 1413.
