Goals Although limited in scope and often biased in one direction or another, indices that rank universities can give an indication of their overall academic quality. Rising in a particular ranking scheme is clearly not one of UC's strategic goals, however, rankings do allow institutions to assess their performance relative to their peers in a way that is often very public.

Measures This section reports college rankings for the UC campuses and their comparison institutions from six different ranking schemes: the 1995 National Research Council, The Center for Measuring University Performance at Arizona State University, U.S. News and World Report's Best Graduate Programs, U.S. News and World Report's Best National Universities, U.S. News and World Report's Top 50 Public National Universities and the Academic Ranking of World Universities from Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China. Importantly, regardless of the purpose of a particular ranking scheme or its focus, methodology or underlying value structure, the academic strength and excellence of the UC campuses shines forth.