The Academic ranking and rating agency (ARRA) presented its 11th ranking of the faculties of the Slovak universities in the end of November 2015. It uses publicly available and verifiable data from 2014 about the quality of education and research within the individual faculties. It evaluated 112 faculties altogether within 11 study fields, from which 104 faculties were of public universities and 8 of private.
Two out of our five faculties were placed within their categories to the second best positions in Slovakia.
In the category of medical faculties the Faculty of Medicine of the Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice took the third position. There were no significant changes in the ranking within this category. The faculties are divided into two sub-categories within this group. The first sub-category contains medical and pharmaceutical faculties with significant scientific production (publications and citations), with numerous successful grants, and with a high number of international students. These faculties occupy the first four positions. The second sub-category is represented by faculties of paramedical and nursing study fields, and are characterized by a rather high number of students per teacher, rather than by performance in publication.
In the category of faculties of science the Faculty of Science of the Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice defended its 2nd position from last year after the Faculty of Mathematics, Physics, and Informatics of the Comenius University in Bratislava. The third faculty was the Faculty of Science of the Comenius University in Bratislava. There was only one significant change from last year, and it was the higher grant success of the Faculty of Science of the Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice. Thanks to this change our faculty got closer to the faculty on the first position. The pattern of the ten-year development within the amount of cited works of the first three faculties is also interesting, which were responsible for 42% of citation performance of all Slovak universities last year, and the previous year their share increased to 45%.
In the category of faculties of law the Faculty of Law of the Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice took the 2nd position again. The highest number of applicants compared to the number of accepted students is presented this year by the faculties on the first two positions – Faculty of Law of the University of Trnava and Faculty of Law of the Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice. However, it is difficult to compare the value of 1.9 applicant for one planned position to the data from 10 years ago, when the number of applicants had reached the values of 11 or 4.
In the category of faculties of arts the Faculty of Arts of the Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice moved to the 4th place. There were several changes within this category. The shift of the Faculty of Humanities of the University of Žilina from the third to the sixth position enabled the upward movement of the other faculties. The first two positions were taken by the Faculty of Humanities and Natural Sciences of the University of Prešov in Prešov and by the Faculty of Arts of the Comenius University in Bratislava.
In the category of other social sciences the Faculty of Public Administration of the Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice received the 10th place again. This category is characterized by a rising tendency in publication and citation production in the international databases, which from several articles and citations from a decade ago reached the level of 450 works and more than 600 citations. When compared to the other groups the figures do not represent a significant number, but with an annual increase in the number of published papers, it indicates the second highest increase among all faculty groups (annually, more than 50%).
Further information: www.arra.sk
The whole report: Hodnotenie fakúlt vysokých škôl 2014
