By Andrew Thompson-Landerghini, University Marketing & Communications
The Center for World University Rankings (CWUR) recently published its list of the best universities across the globe and for the sixth straight year the University of Utah made the top 100. The U ranked No. 68 internationally, just behind Carnegie Mellon University and ahead of Pac-12 peer UC-Boulder. When considering U.S.-only schools, Utah was No. 42.
“We have been working diligently to improve the value of the education our students receive at the University of Utah,” said Ruth Watkins, senior vice president for Academic Affairs at the U. “Our students work with renowned faculty who have seen increased research funding, awards and publications; they are graduating with experiences that set them apart from their peers; and our demographics are shifting to mirror the larger community. We are extremely proud to offer our students such a high-quality education, and we’re honored to be recognized among the top universities in the world.”
Established in 2012, CWUR is unique in that it is the only global university ranking that does not use surveys or university-submitted data, which can sometimes skew or distort results, when evaluating the world’s universities. Instead CWUR factors these eight areas in its scoring, ordered by weighted importance (25 percent each for the first three, 5 percent each for the other five): quality of education, quality of faculty, alumni employment, number of research publications, influence of research, amount of research citations, broad impact and the number of patents. Of the eight, the University of Utah made the top-100 in seven of the measurements, scoring highest in number of patents, where it was ranked 20th in the world.
For the first time, the CWUR ranked schools in various subjects and resources, in which the U placed in the top-10 for medical laboratory technology (No. 2) and anatomy (No. 6). Of the Pac-12 institutions, the U finished sixth in the rankings, and was No. 1 among all universities in the state of Utah. In total, 27,770 degree-granting institutions of higher education worldwide were evaluated, with the top 1,000 receiving a specific rank.