BELLINGHAM — Washington has one of the very best universities in the world, according to new rankings from U.S. News and World Report.
The rankings site’s latest list of the best global universities, which was released late June 24, saw the University of Washington ranked in seventh place, in a tie with University College London.
UW, which took sixth place in the 2022-23 rankings, placed one spot ahead of Columbia University and one spot behind the University of Cambridge. Harvard University took the top spot, followed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford University.
UW’s ranking was driven by its high number of its faculty members’ papers that have been cited, particularly those in the top 1 percent of the most cited papers, and its regional research reputation. It ranked in the top six for research output and reputation in the fields of molecular biology, marine biology, public, environmental and occupational health and clinical medicine.
Washington State University was the only other school in the state to crack the top 500, coming in at No. 397. Western Washington University ranked at No. 1,435.
The top-ten ranked institutions were:
1. Harvard University
2. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
3. Stanford University
4. University of Oxford
5. University of California Berkeley
6. University of Cambridge
7. University of Washington and University College London (tie)
8. Tie for 7th
9. Columbia University
10. Yale University
How college rankings are determined
As opposed to their annual national university rankings, which take undergraduate programs into account, this list of best in the world aims to measure the universities with the highest research output and best research reputations globally. UW was the highest-ranked Washington school in last year’s national rankings, at No. 40.
U.S. News takes 13 factors into account to compile the rankings, with global research reputation, regional research reputation and number of publications among the top 10 percent most cited carrying the most weight. Reputation metrics were determined by a survey of over 28,000 university staff and faculty members over the past five years.
Other factors include total number of publications, citations per paper and percentage of total publications that rank among the top 10 percent most cited.
