Eight Irish colleges have made the grade in a list of the world's top institutions.

The QS World University Rankings list, which ranks colleges by subject - was based on global reputation surveys among employers and academics.

Trinity College Dublin, University College Dublin and University College Cork are among those that made the cut - we were rated particularly highly on English across those universities.

Ireland's oldest university, Trinity's 17-thousand students are benefiting from top lecturers, according to their peers.

While University College Dublin's English, economics, geography, biological sciences, and accounting and finance departments helped them made the top 100.

UCC ranks well following controversy

University College Cork scored well, following controversy that the head of the institution, president Dr Michael Murphy, asked staff to vote for UCC under the QS rating system. The college has previously paid for premium ranking status.

UCC won QS stars in the areas of research, teaching, internationalisation, engagement, employability, facilities, innovation, specialist criteria.

NUI Galway also won QS stars in all of the same 8 areas - with a very high research rating.

DCU placed at 324, with a high rating for research and Dublin's Institute of Technology came in under the 451- 500 category.

University of Limerick placed in the same 451-500 set, winning 4 QS stars.

Finally, NUI Maynooth placed in the 501-550 survey of over 800 institutions.