UW News

November 6, 2014

UW ranked 14th in the world by U.S. News & World Report

UW News

U. of WashingtonThe University of Washington landed in a three-way tie for No. 14 in U.S. News & World Report’s first ranking of Best Global Universities – a new ranking that is separate from its annual Best Colleges list. The publication released world rankings, it said, in recognition of the fact that more students are looking beyond their own borders for higher education options and universities are competing worldwide for the best students.

The new U.S. News rankings, released last week, were calculated using indicators that measure global and regional reputation; academic research performance using indicators such as citations and publications; and school-level data on faculty and doctoral graduates.The world rankings are different from the magazine’s Best Colleges list, in part “because the global rankings focus specifically on schools’ academic research and reputation overall and not their separate undergraduate or graduate programs.”

“This newest ranking from U.S. News, like the other global rankings from around the world, measures the quality, productivity, influence and scientific and scholarly reputation of our faculty,” said UW president Michael K. Young. “It is the truest ranking of our impact as a university and the quality of what we do every day with our students in the classroom. The quality of the faculty defines in many ways who we are, and we are very proud to be among the best universities in the world.”

The UW tied with the University of Michigan and the University of Toronto for 14th, with the UW and Michigan tying for third among U.S. public universities on the list.

The U.S. News global ranking follows the UW’s No. 5 placement, and top among U.S. public universities, on the National Taiwan University 2014 Performance Ranking of Scientific Papers for World Universities released earlier this month. Also, the Shanghai Jiao Tong Academic Ranking of World Universities ranked the UW 15th on the planet before issuing an “Alternative Ranking” – removing Nobel Prizes and Field Medals that may have been won dozens of years ago from consideration – in which the UW ranked No. 10. The Times Higher Education World Ranking placed the UW No. 26 internationally and fourth among U.S. public universities.