IRELAND'S most famous university has suffered a blow after it slid further down the world's most prestigious league table.
Trinity College Dublin (TCD) has slumped from 110th to 129th – and is down from 76th three years ago – in the highly-regarded UK-based Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings 2013-14.
The slide prompted UCD president Dr Hugh Brady to call for universities to have greater control over their own affairs.
He said the country's seven universities could not compete with the rest of the world with "two hands tied behind their back" – with state funding falling while the Government still controls how all their income is spent.
No Irish university is in the top 100.
Trinity slipped down the table despite improving its scores under a number of headings. Rankings editor Phil Baty described its slide as "a cause for alarm – when the national flagship falls, it can affect the standing of the rest of the country".
The university's Dean of Research, Professor Vinny Cahill, said it was a "wake-up call" and the Government needed to invest more in Trinity and higher education generally
On a positive note, Dr Brady's University College Dublin has jumped from 187th to 161st place in the table.
University College Cork (UCC) has also improved its position, rising from the 301st-350th bracket to the 276th-300th grouping.
NUI Galway and NUI Maynooth are unchanged and are placed in the 301st-350th and 351st-400th brackets, respectively.
The table reflects a continuing power shift in global higher education, with the US and Europe losing ground to Asian nations pouring money into research and innovation.
Although the top-placed Asian institution, the University of Tokyo, is ranked 23rd, Mr Baty said "more Asian institutions are nipping at the heels of the best in the West, increasingly occupying world top 50 places".
The California Institute of Technology retains its place at the top, with Harvard University and the UK's Oxford University in joint second.
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