Accountability Report 2015

Chapter 14:

Honors and Rankings

One of the points of pride for the University of California is providing undergraduate and graduate students, many of them low-income, with access to an educational and research environment that is equivalent to the Ivy League. This high-quality experience comes in large part from the excellence of UC’s faculty. Over the last decade, UC has celebrated a faculty member receiving a Nobel Prize on an almost annual basis with 61 Nobel recipients in total for the UC system, ranking it fifth in comparison to other countries.

The University of California does not endorse any particular set of rankings, nor does it have any specific goals with respect to any particular ranking. However, we recognize that these rankings, although limited in scope, can give an indication of institutions’ overall academic quality and allow an assessment of an institution’s performance relative to peers in a public way. UC campuses are visible in these rankings, with some near or at the top for public institutions. UC Merced was founded too recently to be reflected in these national ranking systems.

This chapter provides information on rankings of the UC campuses across four national and two international ranking schemes. Each ranking scheme uses different criteria to rank colleges and universities, combining criteria in different ways to produce a ranking that is unique to each. In addition, differences in rankings over time can be due to changes in methodology, making it difficult to assess changes in rankings across indices and across years.

Two organizations — U.S. News and World Report (USNWR) and the Washington Monthly — both rank undergraduate institutions, but they define academic quality very differently. USNWR, for example, focuses on academic reputation, graduation rates, student selectivity and financial resources to create its list of America’s Best Colleges; in contrast, the Washington Monthly defines academic quality in terms of an institution’s contribution to the public good. One ranking system, USNWR, looks at the quality of graduate and professional education in the U.S. Two other ranking schemes — the Shanghai Academic Ranking of World Universities and the Times Higher Education World University Rankings — provide global rankings of institutions, primarily using measures of faculty research productivity.

The five rankings selected for publication are

  • U.S. News: America’s Top National Universities
  • Washington Monthly: National University Rankings
  • U.S. News: Graduate Program Rankings
  • Shanghai Ranking Consultancy: Academic Ranking of World Universities
  • Times Higher Education: World University Ranking 


14.1 U.S. NEWS: AMERICA’S TOP UNIVERSITIES

Of the top ten national public universities in the U.S. News and World Report ranking, five are UC campuses.

First published in 1983, the U.S. News and World Report college rankings are the oldest and best known of all college rankings. These rankings are based on seven major factors: peer assessment, graduation and retention rates, faculty resources, student selectivity, financial resources and alumni-giving rates. U.S. News’s rankings of top national universities focus on academic reputation, financial resources and selectivity — factors that tend to privilege older, well-established, elite private institutions.  

14.1.1    U.S. News: America’s Top National Universities, 2007 to 2015 

  2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
Harvard 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 
Yale 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3
Stanford 4 4 4 4 5 5 6 5 4
MIT 4 7 4 4 7 5 6 7 7
Berkeley 21 21 21 21 22 21 21 20 20
Los Angeles 26 25 25 24 25 25 24 23 23 
U of Virginia 24 23 23 24 25 25 24 23 23
U of Michigan 24 25 26 27 29 28 29 28 29
San Diego 38 38 35 35 35 37 38 39 37
Davis 47 42 44 42 39 38 38 39 38 
Santa Barbara 47 44 44 42 39 42 41 41 40
Irvine 44 44 44 46 41 45 44 49 42 
U of Illinois 41 38 40 39 47 45 46 41 42
Santa Cruz 76 79 96 71 72 75 77 86 85 
SUNY at Buffalo 3rd 3rd 121 121 120 111 106 109 103
Riverside 88 96 89 96 94 97 101 112 113 

U.S. News labels its undergraduate rankings for the prospective year; the 2015 rankings were published August 2014. UC San Francisco is not included in U.S. News’ “America’s Best Colleges” rankings because it is a graduate health sciences campus; Merced, which opened in 2005, also is not yet included in these rankings. 



14.1 U.S. NEWS: AMERICA’S TOP UNIVERSITIES

14.1.2    U.S. News: America’s Top National Public Universities, 2007 to 2015

 
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
Berkeley
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
Los Angeles
4
3
3
2
2
2
2
2
2 
U of Virginia
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
U of Michigan
2
3
4
4
3
4
4
4
4
San Diego
8
8
7
7
7
8
8
9
8
Davis
13
11
12
11
9
9
8
9
9 
Santa Barbara
13
13
12
11
9
10
10
11
10
Irvine
12
13
12
14
11
13
12
14
11 
U of Illinois
10
8
10
9
15
13
13
11
11
Santa Cruz
33
35
45
29
29
31
32
36
35 
SUNY at Buffalo          
54
51
53
48
Riverside
39
45
40
43
41
41
46
55
55


14.2 Washington Monthly: National Research Universities

UC is highly rated in the Washington Monthly rankings, which focus on contributions to the public good. In the 2014 listing, four of the top five universities are UC campuses. 

Washington Monthly developed its ranking system in 2005 as an alternative to U.S. News’s America’s Best Colleges rankings. Unlike U.S. News, which ranks institutions on their prestige, resources and selectivity, Washington Monthly ranks institutions on their contributions to the public good.

Its rankings are based on three broad factors: how well each institution fosters social mobility (e.g., percentage of students receiving Pell Grants); furthers research (e.g., faculty awards and Ph.D. production); and serves the country (e.g., student participation in ROTC and the Peace Corps).

14.2.1    Washington Monthly: National University Rankings, 2005 to 2014

  2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014
San Diego 8 6 4 n/a 2 1 1 1 1 1
Riverside - 22 15 n/a 16 40 5 9 2 2
Berkeley 3 2 3 n/a 1 2 3 5 5 3
Los Angeles 2 4 2 n/a 3 3 2 6 10 5
Stanford 5 7 13 n/a 4 4 4 3 6 6
Harvard 16 28 27 n/a 11 9 6 11 8 10
U of Michigan 10 18 6 n/a 18 7 10 13 12 13
MIT 1 1 27 n/a 12 15 11 15 11 14
Santa Barbara - 57 36 n/a 21 11 13 14 22 15
Davis 17 10 8 n/a 10 6 8 17 23 16
U of Illinois 13 16 11 n/a 24 27 38 22 19 26
Yale 15 12 38 n/a 23 33 39 41 54 57
U of Virginia 22 20 16 n/a 26 59 53 48 51 60
Santa Cruz 68 76 n/a 56 93 70 67 65 79
Irvine 72 49 n/a 44 50 60 117 84 83
SUNY at Buffalo 203 111 n/a 101 121 160 202 204 162

Washington Monthly did not publish rankings for 2008.



14.3 U.S. News:Graduate Program Rankings

UC’s graduate and professional programs are consistently highly rated in comparison to its peer institutions. 

U.S. News has ranked American universities’ graduate programs in business, education, engineering, law and medicine since 2000. Like its college rankings, USNWR’s graduate program rankings are controversial. The absence of an institution from a top ranking does not necessarily imply it received a lower ranking: Berkeley, Santa Barbara and Santa Cruz, for example, do not offer M.D. degrees and thus are not ranked in medicine while Riverside’s M.D. program is too new to be ranked.

14.3.1    U.S. News: Graduate Program Rankings, 2007 to 2015

  Campus
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
Business Stanford
2
1
2
1
1
1
1
1
1
Harvard
1
1
1
1
2
1
1
1
2
MIT
4
4
4
3
3
4
4
5
5
Berkeley
8
7
7
7
7
7
7
7
7
U of Virginia
12
14
15
13
13
13
12
11
10
U of Michigan
11
12
13
12
14
13
14
11
11
Yale
14
13
10
11
10
10
13
13
13
Los Angeles
16
11
14
15
14
15
14
16
15
U of Illinois
38
38
42
42
37
37
47
35
47
Davis
44
40
40
40
40
40
40
40
40
Irvine
44
nr
36
36
40
49
49
45
53
San Diego
73
60
63
SUNY at Buffalo
nr
nr
nr
nr
75
89
75
74
79
Riverside
nr
nr
nr
nr
nr
97
nr
nr
nr
Education Harvard
3
6
6
3
2
2
3
3
2
Stanford
2
1
2
5
4
4
5
4
3
U of Michigan
6
9
14
14
9
12
11
8
11
Los Angeles 
5
3
5
6
6
6
8
11
13
Berkeley
8
7
7
10
12
13
12
14
17
U of Virginia
31
24
21
21
22
23
22
22
22
U of Illinois
25
48
25
25
23
22
19
26
24
Irvine 
nr
nr
nr
nr
48
43
37
36
31
Davis
nr
nr
nr
nr
58
63
60
45
38
Santa Barbara
nr
nr
nr
nr
58
63
40
64
67
Riverside
nr
nr
nr
nr
66
67
74
77
76
San Diego
 
98
99
Engineering MIT
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
Stanford
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
Berkeley
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
U of Illinois
5
5
5
5
5
5
5
6
6
U of Michigan
9
9
9
8
9
8
9
8
6
Los Angeles
16
13
14
15
14
16
16
16
14
San Diego
13
11
12
13
14
14
14
14
17
Harvard
23
22
18
19
18
19
23
24
20
Santa Barbara
19
19
18
19
21
21
20
19
23
Davis
32
33
32
32
31
31
33
31
33
Yale
39
40
39
39
35
34
34
34
35
Irvine
37
35
36
36
39
39
37
38
37
U of Virginia
38
37
39
39
39
39
38
40
39
SUNY at Buffalo
nr
nr
nr
nr
52
54
61
60
59
Riverside
nr
nr
nr
nr
66
64
67
69
71
Santa Cruz
nr
nr
nr
nr
78
87
87
81
88
Law Yale
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
Harvard
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
Stanford
2
3
3
3
3
3
2
3
2
Berkeley
8
6
6
7
9
7
9
9
8
U of Virginia
10
9
10
10
9
7
7
8
8
U of Michigan
8
9
9
9
7
10
9
10
11
Los Angeles
15
16
15
15
16
15
17
16
16
Irvine
nr
nr
30
Davis
44
35
28
28
23
29
38
36
31
U of Illinois
25
27
23
21
23
35
47
40
41
Hastings
38
39
42
42
42
44
48
54
59
SUNY at Buffalo
100
85
3rd tier
3rd tier
84
82
86
100
87
Medicine: Primary Care San Francisco
8
6
5
5
4
3
4
4
3
U of Michigan
45
17
7
14
20
8
8
8
5
Los Angeles
18
12
10
14
16
10
11
13
7
Harvard
13
7
15
17
15
15
14
11
12
Davis
26
35
20
20
41
24
19
16
19
San Diego
35
26
28
28
33
27
39
38
19
Stanford
63
62
38
25
U of Virginia
38
35
29
39
20
19
18
29
40
Yale
nr
nr
nr
nr
67
74
72
68
57
Irvine
nr
nr
nr
nr
nr
86
66
61
62
SUNY at Buffalo
nr
nr
nr
nr
86
nr
79
nr
nr
Medicine: Research Harvard
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
Stanford
7
8
6
11
5
4
2
2
2
San Francisco
5
5
5
4
5
5
4
4
3
Yale
8
9
6
6
5
7
7
7
7
U of Michigan
10
11
11
6
10
10
8
12
10
Los Angeles
13
9
11
11
13
13
13
12
13
San Diego
14
14
15
16
15
16
15
14
17
U of Virginia
25
22
25
26
26
26
Davis
48
48
47
47
42
42
42
40
43
Irvine
43
45
47
47
42
44
42
43
45
SUNY at Buffalo
nr
nr
nr
nr
55
57
64
71
nr

Notes: “nr” denotes the program was not rated in that year. Professional programs are listed here by what U.S. News calls the “edition” year, which is one year after the “ranked in” year. For example, the 2015 rankings above were published in the 2015 edition but ranked in 2014.



14.4 Shanghai Ranking Consultancy: Academic Rankings of World Universities 

In the Academic Rankings of World Universities, only four public universities in the world appear in the top 20, and all four are UC campuses.

The Academic Rankings of World Universities (ARWU) was created by Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China in 2003 to determine the global standing of Chinese research universities. Since 2009, the Shanghai Ranking Consultancy has published these rankings.

The Shanghai Ranking Consultancy ranks the top 1,200 universities worldwide; their rankings are based entirely on measures of research strength and faculty honors and awards. English-speaking universities, especially those in the United States, tend to dominate the ARWU rankings.

This ranking system emphasizes research outputs, such as total research expenditures. Because research outputs are not normalized by number of faculty, larger institutions tend to rank more highly than smaller ones. Institutions with strong research programs, especially in the sciences, also tend to score higher than those whose major strengths are in the humanities and social sciences.

14.4.1    Shanghai Ranking Consultancy: Academic Rankings of World Universities, 2006 to 2014

 
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
Harvard
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
Stanford
3
2
2
2
3
2
2
2
2
MIT
5
5
5
5
4
3
3
4
3
Berkeley 
4
3 
3 
3
2 
4
4 
3
4
Yale
11
11
11
11
11
11
11
11
11
Los Angeles 
14 
13
13 
13 
13
12 
12 
12
12
San Diego
13 
14 
14
14 
14 
15
15 
14
14
San Francisco 
18
18 
18 
18 
18 
17
18 
18
18
U of Michigan
21
21
21
22
22
22
22
23
22
U of Illinois
25
26
26
25
25
25
25
25
28
Santa Barbara 
35
35 
36 
35
32 
33 
34
35
41
Irvine 
44 
45
46 
46 
46
48 
45 
45
47
Davis
42
43
48
49
46
48
47
47
55
Santa Cruz
102–150
102–150
102–150
102–150
102–150
102–150
102–150
102–150
93
Riverside
102–150
102–150
102–150
102–150
102–150
102-150
102–150
102–150
102–150
U of Virginia
102–150
102–150
95
91
96
102–150
102–150
102–150
102–150
SUNY at Buffalo
201–300
203–304
201–302
201–302
201–300
201–300
201–300
201–300
201–300

Note: Campuses ranked below the top 100 are placed into ranges in lieu of an exact ranking.



14.5 Times Higher Education: World University Rankings

The top two public institutions in the Times Higher Education rankings are UC Berkeley and UCLA.

The British-based Times Higher Education (THE) significantly revised its educational rankings in 2011; thus, institutional scores from prior years are not comparable to current rankings.

The rankings are based on five “headline” categories: teaching, research, citations, industry income and international outlook.

14.5.1 Times Higher Education World University Rankings, 2010–11 to 2014–15

Reputational Ranking
Overall Ranking
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2010–11
2011–12
2012–13
2013–14
2014–15
Harvard
1
1
1
1
1
1
2
4
2
2
Stanford
5
4
6
3
5
4
2
2
4
4
MIT
2
2
2
2
4
3
7
5
5
6
Berkeley
4
5
5
6
6
8
10
9
8
8
Yale
9
10
10
8
8
10
11
11
11
9
Los Angeles
12
9
8
10
13
11
13
13
12
12
U of Michigan
13
12
12
15
19
15
18
20
18
17
U of Illinois
21
23
24
23
30
33
31
33
29
29
Santa Barbara
51–60
51–60
51–60
61–70
61–70
29
35
35
33
37
San Diego
30
36
34
40
41
32
33
38
40
41
Davis
38
44
48
51–60
44
54
38
44
52
55
Irvine          
49
86
96
93
88
Santa Cruz          
68
110
122
136
109
U of Virginia          
72
135
118
112
130
Riverside          
117
143
154
148
150
SUNY at Buffalo              
198
176
191
San Francisco
34
31
40
32
38
          

Note: a blank denotes not ranked. Campuses in the reputational ranking below the top 50 are placed into ranges in lieu of an exact ranking



Download data tables for Chapter 14 indicators (Excel format)