KI drops in ranking over time

Karolinska Institutet is one of the world's fifty best universities. And in Clinical Medicine and Pharmacy the Institute ranks second highest in Europe. But if we look ten years back in time, KI as a whole has dropped.

-We need to work hard to keep up, said Hans-Gustaf Ljunggren, Dean of Research at KI.

Karolinska Institutet is one of the world's fifty best universities. And in Clinical Medicine and Pharmacy the Institute ranks second highest in Europe. But if we look ten years back in time, KI as a whole has dropped.

This year, KI came in 44th place in the annual Academic Ranking of World Universities, published in August 2013.

However, in a ten year perspective KI has failed to achieve its top ranking from 2003, when it was 39th best university in the world. Since then, KI has taken several steps down, and recently some up.

Hans-Gustaf Ljunggren, Dean of Research at KI, says the annual ranking is not hugely significant for the KI.

-It's great to see that KI remains at the top in Europe, and still high in the world. But we should of course work hard so that KI reaches even higher ranking scores. That is my absolute aim as Dean of Research at KI. Today we need to work hard to maintain our position and even harder to advance, he said.

Similar development is evident in Clinical Medicine and Pharmacy, where KI placed ninth in 2007, but dropped to 11th place this year.

What is your comment on why KI in a larger perspective ranks lower now than ten years ago?

-My view is that KI continues to remain at the fore front in an increasingly fierce international environment, with a fast-growing Asia that invests a lot in biomedical sciences. So, competition is growing and we need to work hard to keep up, said Hans-Gustaf Ljunggren.

For Department of Medicine, Huddinge the ranking is still good news. In Clinical Medicine and Pharmacy, areas that MedH is active in, the department came second in Europe after Cambridge, and place 11 in the world, which is unique among universities in Sweden.

What implications the ranking score have for MedH is difficult to say, according to Hans-Gustaf Ljunggren.

-MedH usually positions itself in the middle amongst KI's departments in most assessments. As MedH is my home base department, I'd like to see it in among KI top five departments. It could be an explicit vision of the department, but it's my own personal wish.