UC San Diego Named 32nd Best University
in the World by Times Higher Education

University earns the gold standard for world-class research and learning environment in the publication’s new rigorous rankings methodology

September 15, 2010

By Christine Clark

UC San Diego Named 32nd Best University in the World by Times Higher Education.

As the University of California, San Diego prepares to launch its milestone 50th Anniversary celebration, the campus added another accolade – ranked the 32nd best university in the world, according to Times Higher Education. For the first time, the London-based higher education magazine partnered with Thomson Reuters for the “World Universities Rankings 2010,” which recognized UC San Diego for its learning environment, ground-breaking research and economic impact.

“This global recognition is an honorable testament to UC San Diego’s dedication to achieving the extraordinary in education, research, service and patient care over the last 50 years,” said Chancellor Marye Anne Fox. “UC San Diego’s spirit of innovation has helped fuel the economy, sparked medical and research breakthroughs and benefited the public through science and the arts. Our 50th Anniversary celebration is a time to celebrate our past as we look to the university’s positive impact on the country and world in the next 50 years.” This year, the magazine implemented new data and methodology for the rankings.

For the first time, the London-based higher education magazine partnered with Thomson Reuters for the “World Universities Rankings 2010,” which recognized UC San Diego for its learning environment, ground-breaking research and economic impact.

Times Higher Education signed an agreement with Thomson Reuters, a world leading research data specialist, to provide all the data and data analysis for the 2010 report. The “2010-11 World University Rankings” new methodology constitutes the most detailed, rigorous and comprehensive study of global university performance ever undertaken, according to the publication.
           
“We would like to congratulate UC San Diego for its performance in this year’s rigorous rankings. Being ranked 32 in the world top 200 is an impressive achievement,” said Ann Mroz, editor of Times Higher Education. “The top 200 universities in the world represent only a tiny fraction of world higher education and any institution that makes it into this table is truly world-class.”

In the upcoming issue the editors note, “The new methodology places less importance on reputation and heritage than in previous years and gives more weight to hard measures of excellence in all three core elements of a university’s mission – research, teaching and knowledge transfer. It is also the only global ranking system that includes a section dedicated to the teaching and learning environment, including the first-ever global survey of institutions’ teaching reputation.”

Times Higher Education ranked universities in five broad performance categories:

• Teaching – the learning environment (30 percent)
• Citations – research influence (32.5 percent)
• Research – volume, income and reputation (30 percent)
• International mix – staff and students (5 percent)
• Industry income – innovation (2.5 percent)
  

For a full list of Times Higher Education rankings go to: www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/world-university-rankings

Media Contact:Christine Clark, 858-534-7618, ceclark@ucsd.edu