The Academic Ranking and Rating Agency (ARRA) presented the ninth rating of Slovak university faculties in November 2013. The rating is based on publicly available and verifiable data about the quality of education and research at the individual faculties in 2012. 109 faculties were rated in total, 103 public faculties and 6 private university faculties in 11 groups of fields of study.
Three out of five faculties of The Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice, are second best in their respective categories in Slovakia. “I congratulate to universities of faculties ranked as first, and I am delighted by the second places of our three faculties, in their categories,” said the Rector of UPJŠ, prof. MUDr. Ladislav Mirossay, DrSc. after a publication of the ranking.
In the category of the faculties of medicine, the Faculty of Medicine of UPJŠ ranked second again after a year and left both, the Faculty of Pharmacy of Comenius University and the fourth Faculty of Medicine of Comenius University, behind. According to ARRA, there are two reasons for this exchange – at the Faculty of Pharmacy of Comenius University the number of doctoral students rose a little, however, without the adequate rise of scientific production (doctoral students’ paradox), but more importantly, the number of international students among the students population rose substantially at the Faculty of Medicine of UPJŠ. In Košice in the last two years, the percentage of international students increased from 14 to 25 percent. The agency declared that this type of increase is part of a long term trend concerning all four best ranked faculties in this category. These faculties are known not only for the high percentage of international students but also for substantial scientific production (publications and citations), and high grant success rate. Moreover, the Faculty of Medicine of UPJŠ has reported a high increase in number of doctoral students.
In the category of the faculties of natural sciences, the Faculty of Sciences of UPJŠ ranked second, after the Faculty of Mathematics, Physics and Informatics of Comenius University. Faculty of Natural Sciences of Comenius University ranked third. According to the ARRA ranking, these oldest faculties, which dominate the first three places in the ranking in a long term, definitely meet the criteria for science and research, doctoral studies and grant success rate, better than the other faculties.
In the category of the faculties of law, Faculty of Law of UPJŠ ranked second again, but substantially lowered the lead, in number of points, of the first Faculty of Law of Trnava University. The increased number of doctoral students had also a positive effect for Košice. Even though the group as a whole keeps a relatively high level of students’ interest to study in the field, none of the faculties managed to avoid the annual decrease of this interest.
In the category of the faculties of humanities, the Faculty of Arts of UPJŠ ranked fifth, in the first half of the ranking. All faculties in this category, with no exception, reported an annual decrease in interest of studying in the field. In the whole group, there is a persisting trend of increasing publication and citation production in international databases, which is still relatively low.
In the category of other social sciences, the Faculty of Public Administration of UPJŠ ranked 10. According to ARRA, in this group as well, the publication and citation production in international databases is increasing. Moreover, this production increases the fastest among all the groups, annually and the figures of increase reach tens of percent. However, for one exception, there is an evident decrease of interest in this field.
ARRA, in its current rating report, highlighted two important trends in development. First trend is overall decrease of interest in studying. Though the number of applicants has been decreasing each year since 2007 (from almost 85.000 to 60.000), it was in 2013 when for the first time the border was crossed and the number of applicants was smaller than the planned number of accepted students. This decrease in interest is less substantial when it comes to better quality faculties and the stable leaders in their respective categories were only a few out of many which reported an increasing number of applicants. Agency, deducting from the demographic curve, presupposes that this trend will persist in the near future. Estimated minimum will be reached in years 2020 to 2022 and the number of applicants could reach current figures again in around 2030. Second trend is a decrease in overall number of doctoral students at Slovak universities, which ARRA recorded for the first time in the history of ranking. At the same time ARRA stated, that at the faculties which dominate the top of the ranking, there has been only a minimal decrease, or in some cases, even an increase of number of doctoral students.
