From U.S. News & World Report to the international Shanghai Jiao Tong University rankings, the University of California scored highly in several recently released college rankings. UC does not endorse any particular set of rankings and cautions users to consider the differing methodologies employed. This summary is offered as a guide to various rankings in the news.
"The University of California is the premier public university system in the world," said UC President Mark G. Yudof. "These rankings indicate the breadth of quality throughout the UC system."
The next release of the widely respected National Research Council rankings of U.S. research doctorate programs is expected later this year.
Shanghai Jiao Tong University Academic
Ranking of World Universities 2008
The Institute
of Higher Education at Shanghai Jiao
Tong University
in China
publishes rankings of universities internationally. The rankings are based on
several indicators of academic or research performance, including major
international awards won by alumni or staff, highly cited researchers, articles
published in selected top journals and articles indexed by major citation
indexes. In the 2008 rankings, seven UC campuses ranked among the top 50 in the
world, public and private.
UC Berkeley (3)
UCLA (13)
UC San Diego (14)
UC San Francisco (18)
UC Santa Barbara (36)
UC Irvine (46)
UC Davis (48)
U.S. News &
World Report America's
Best Colleges 2009
UC Berkeley remains the No. 1
public university in the country as ranked by U.S. News & World Report in
the magazine's 2009 America's
Best Colleges guide. Six UC campuses ranked among the top 15 public national
universities and three UC campuses made the magazine's "up-and-coming schools"
list - UC Riverside, UC Irvine and UC San Diego. (Private institutions
represented the top 20 slots in the U.S. News list of best national
universities as its methodology incorporates such factors as "faculty
resources," "financial resources" and "alumni giving.")
|
Campus
|
Public universities rank
|
All universities rank
|
|---|---|---|
| UC Berkeley | 1 | 21 |
| UCLA | 3 | 25 |
| UC San Diego | 7 | 35 |
| UC Davis | 12 | 44 |
| UC Irvine | 12 | 44 |
| UC Santa Barbara | 12 | 44 |
| UC Riverside | 40 | 89 |
| UC Santa Cruz | 45 | 96 |
The Arizona State University
Center for Measuring University
Performance's Top American Research Universities 2007
The Center for Measuring
University Performance ranks U.S.
research universities by nine measures: total research, federal research,
endowment assets, annual giving, National
Academy members, faculty
awards, doctorates granted, postdoctoral appointees and SAT/ACT scores. In the
top tier among American research universities (those in the top 25 of at least
one of the nine measures), UC had six campuses (UC Berkeley, UCLA, UC San
Francisco, UC San Diego, UC Davis, UC Santa Barbara). Among public
universities, UC Berkeley and UCLA were among seven universities to be ranked
in the top 25 in all nine measures.
Times Higher Education-QS World University Rankings 2008
The Times Higher Education-QS World University Rankings are based on reviews by academic peers and employers, as well as data on citations per faculty, staffing levels and the proportions of international faculty and students. The 2008 global rankings include five UC campuses in the top 100: UCLA (30), UC Berkeley (36), UC San Diego (58), UC Davis (89), UC Santa Barbara (98).
PayScale.com College Salary Report
PayScale, a Seattle-based
firm that provides global online compensation data, measured U.S. colleges
by how much their alumni earn. UC Berkeley ranked as the top public university
and No. 12 overall in the College Salary Report. Among public
colleges, UC had five campuses in the top 10 and six in the top 15: UC Berkeley
(1), UCLA (3), UC San Diego (3), UC Davis (6), UC Irvine (8), UC Santa Barbara
(14).
The Princeton Review
Best 368 Colleges 2009 Edition
The Princeton Review, a New
York-based education services company also known for its test-prep courses,
released its annual college guide that asked 120,000 students at 368 top
colleges to rate their schools on dozens of topics and report on their
experiences. The Top 10 Best Value Public Colleges included three UC campuses:
UC Berkeley (5), UC San Diego (6), UC Santa Cruz (7).
Kaplan College Guide 2009
Kaplan Publishing, a New
York-based educational services provider, focused its 2009 college guide for
the first time on environmentally responsible schools and green careers. The UC
system earned a spot in Kaplan's top 10 greenest schools, calling it "a leader
in green initiatives across its ten campuses."
Sierra magazine placed the University of California's 10 campuses "in a league of their own" in the Sierra Club publication's second annual green college guide. Sierra features the 10-campus UC system as a "shining star," a national environmental leader among colleges. The magazine, which ranked UC No. 4 in its initial green college guide last year, adjusted its approach this year to measure campuses as individual institutions but still wanted to recognize UC's systemwide achievements.