UC San Diego Named 15th Best Among World Universities

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The University of California, San Diego is ranked the 15th best university in world and its life sciences program is ranked 9th, according to the 2012 Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) that was released Aug. 15, 2012 by the Center for World-Class Universities at Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

“It’s an honor for UC San Diego to be recognized as a global model of academic excellence,” said UC San Diego Chancellor Pradeep K. Khosla.  “This ranking is a testament to the extraordinary achievements of our outstanding faculty, dedicated staff, high-caliber students and successful alumni.”

The Academic Ranking of World Universities also recognizes subject fields. In the life and agriculture sciences category, UC San Diego is ranked 9th in the world.

“These rankings provide unequivocal validation of the commitment we have made to faculty quality and top research programs,” said Steve Kay, dean of the Division of Biological Sciences at UC San Diego. “They are a clear example of our standing as a world-class Division of Biological Sciences and complement the number one ranking from the National Research Council that we received last year for our graduate program.”

Other UC San Diego ARWU subject field rankings include natural sciences and mathematics (20), engineering (12), clinical medicine and pharmacy (21), social science (25), mathematics (23), chemistry (13), computer science (14) and economics (17).

ARWU evaluated more than 1,200 universities and published the top 500 on the web. Universities are ranked by several indicators of academic or research performance, including alumni and staff winning Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals, highly cited researchers, papers published in Nature and Science, papers indexed in major citation indices and the per capita academic performance of an institution. ARWU did not rank arts and humanities and psychology/psychiatry.

For more information on the Academic of World Universities rankings, go to shanghairanking.com.