For Gertraud Schüpbach, dean of the Vetsuisse Faculty, rankings play only a minor role. “Rankings capture only selected metrics and are therefore highly imprecise.” She nevertheless takes the decline in academic reputation—even if it is only slight—very seriously: “Our reputation in the scientific community not only determines whether we can attract top talent to our faculty, but also influences the job prospects of our graduates.” In an environment where both core funding and research grants are affected by budget cuts, she says it is a major challenge to maintain high scientific quality across all disciplines. She also hopes to draw inspiration from the research evaluation at the Bern campus, which will be completed shortly. “If we manage to sharpen our research profile, this will also be better recognized externally.” The research evaluation at the Zurich campus will begin in the fall.
The annual ranking is once again led by the Royal Veterinary College in London. In addition to this long-established institution dedicated exclusively to veterinary medicine, two other institutions from the United Kingdom (Edinburgh and Liverpool) as well as the University of Utrecht have ranked ahead of the Vetsuisse Faculty. Among European institutions, the Vetsuisse Faculty thus ranks fourth.
