The universities of Trento and Verona rank first among the Italian public universities, according to the ranking published today by the Italian financial newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore.
Trento and Verona (score: 84) are first in the overall rankings, followed by Milan - Polytechnic (79), Bologna (78), Padua (76).
The new methodology used to draft the shortlist measures the final result according to 9 criteria for teaching programmes and 3 indicators for research.
Trento’s strengths are: Attractiveness (ratio of students coming from outside Trentino); Efficiency (ratio of non-active students); External funding (capacity to obtain financial resources for research projects); International mobility (ration of ECTS achieved by students while being abroad); Research (evaluation of the research products in the Anvur study).
Please find the complete rankings on the website of Il Sole 24 Ore.
This ranking confirms the excellent results obtained over the last few years in the national and international rankings.
The Rector of the University of Trento, Daria de Pretis declared:
“I cannot deny that we are extremely satisfied with our first position in the ranking, which we consider the reward for the great effort of all people working at UniTrento, with commitment and dedication. Rankings always need to be carefully evaluated, in a cautious and lucid way. The criteria are sometimes questionable and the resulting figures may be interpreted in various manners, thus leading to different conclusions. Yet, the good positioning in numerous rankings probably mirror the reality. I therefore invite everybody, rather than the isolated value of this ranking, to consider the most significant feature, i.e. the recurring excellent positioning of UniTrento in the national and international rankings. The frequency of positive evaluations is, in my opinion, an encouraging signal of the quality of our work.
The number of disciplinary areas contributes to the final score. The University of Trento is a medium-sized university, with a wide range of disciplinary sectors, although fewer than in other larger universities. However, we have been able once more to obtain the first position, thus overtaking prestigious universities and polytechnics, with a well-known tradition.
Together with our overall primacy gained in the ranking published today by the Italian financial newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore, I should like to underline the good performance of the teaching programmes, which confirms our top-position in Italy. The good result rewards our commitment and efforts, thus encouraging us to continue in this way: paying attention to the quality of the study programmes, the selection acknowledging the merit and the collaboration, thanks to an increasingly important cooperation network, for example with the University Verona, ranking first today, side by side with us, and other universities located in the Euregio.
The features we need to improve is the drop-out rate after the first year of university - which is still high - and the persisting gender imbalance, above all considering the teaching staff. To this end the Academic Senate has recently adopted ad hoc measures so that the University shall bear part of the costs - 25%- for the recruitment of the less represented gender (i.e. currently, women) thus cutting the cost burden of Departments by 25%.