QS ranks dentistry at KI as number one - again!
QS just announced that Karolinska Institutet is ranked number one within the subject of dentistry. We meet Mats Trulsson, head of department at the Department of Dental Medicine, which hosts the dentistry programmes at KI, to hear his thoughts about being ranked number one on one of the world’s most important university rankings.
Congratulations on this excellent ranking! How will you be celebrating this?
"Thank you very much. I’m so happy about these news and happy to share it with all the successful, hard-working and committed employees and students at the Department of Dental Medicine. We will start by eating cake, but the celebrations will then continue for another 364 days."
What does this place in the ranking mean?
"Being ranked number one places the department in the spotlight for a whole year. I became aware of this the first time the subject “Dentistry” was ranked by QS and we were placed top. Suddenly lots of new doors opened up to us in terms of research and education collaborations all around the world. That gave us great opportunities that resulted in several important international collaborations with other top universities."
Could you say that you have now achieved your vision of being a world leader within oral health?
"Our vision is a direction and year by year in the research evaluation we carry out, we see how we are strengthening our research. This is the case with regard to the number of publications, citations and the status of the publications we are publishing in. We have also recruited some new top researchers. Twenty nineteen is also an exciting year in the field of education as we will be restarting both of our programmes, the dentistry programme and the dental hygienist programme, with new syllabuses. We have actually just recently received degree-awarding powers from the Swedish Higher Education Authority for the new three-year dental hygienist programme. Internationally, we are expanding our collaborations. Quite simply, we’re moving forward at full speed and there are a lot of good things happening."
Why is it that KI is ranked in first place?
"Firstly and most importantly, Karolinska Institutet has a good reputation among academics all around the world. Swedish dental care and dental education also have a good international reputation. That is evident not least in that QS also ranks both University of Gothenburg and Malmö University among the top 25 universities in the subject. Of course, QS’s ranking methods may be criticised, just like all rankings."
Will students be effected by the placement in the ranking?
"It is certainly a merit to receive a degree from a top-ranked university. It provides our students with more opportunities. By extension, being ranked first means that the department can offer exchanges at more exciting universities, but it is primarily the case that students will become attractive on the international labour market when they graduate."