At home and abroad, the UC system is unrivaled. That’s according to new rankings from Times Higher Education, a U.K.-based publication.
The World University 2027 rankings identified UC’s nine undergraduate campuses as among the best 50 public universities in the United States. Six UC campuses are among the nation’s top 40, private or public, and all nine undergraduate campuses are among the top 20% of all universities around the world.
The rankings evaluate five main factors — teaching, research, the economic footprint of that research, and international staff, students and research collaborations — across a pool of 2,297 universities in 118 countries and territories.
World University 2027 rankings by campus
| Campus | Public | U.S. | Global |
|---|---|---|---|
| UC Berkeley | 1 | 6 | 9 |
| UCLA | 2 | 12 | 20 |
| UC San Diego | 5 | 20 | 37 |
| UC Davis | 10 | 25 | 65 |
| UC Santa Barbara | 11 | 27 | 71 |
| UC Irvine | 17 | 36 | 97 |
| UC Santa Cruz | 27 | 54 | 201 |
| UC Riverside | 39 | 69 | 326-350* |
| UC Merced | 46 | 79 | 401-450* |
*The World University rankings group universities into bands after the top 200.
Why it matters:
The University of California is at the very top of a variety of rankings. Those include rankings of student outcomes (Forbes), global reputation (U.S. News), universities that produce startups (Pitchbook) and the U.S. News Best Colleges rankings, which have named a University of California campus the nation’s top public every year since its 1999 edition.
The Times Higher Education World University ranking originated in 2004. It’s named UC Berkeley the top public university in the U.S. for 11 of the past 12 years.
Learn more:
