UTA advances in Center for World University Rankings

Friday, Jun 08, 2018 • Media Contact : UT Arlington Media Relations

The University of Texas at Arlington jumped 16 spots nationally and three spots globally in the 2018-19 Center for World University Rankings issued this week.

UTA is ranked 150^th nationally and 558^th in the world.

CWUR annually evaluates more than 27,000 degree-granting institutions and ranks the top 1,000 in the world. Globally, UTA ranks in the top 2 percent. Among U.S. institutions, UTA ranks No. 150, up from No. 166 in 2017, No. 175 in 2016, No. 185 in 2015 and No. 196 in 2014.

Further demonstrating UTA’s excellence, the University is a Carnegie Classification Research-1 “highest research activity” doctoral university and was ranked by the Brookings Institution as one of the top 25 “leader” universities in the nation for providing high social mobility while producing high levels of impactful research.

These accomplishments demonstrate significant achievement along the guiding aspirations of transforming the student experience, engaging in high-impact research and building on faculty excellence which are set forth in UTA’s aggressive Strategic Plan 2020 Bold Solutions | Global Impact. The plan solidifies UTA’s standing as the model 21^st century urban research university.

Since 2012, the CWUR rankings assess the quality of education without relying on surveys and university data submissions. The ranking started out as a project in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, with the aim of rating the top 100 world universities. In 2014, the ranking expanded to list the top 1,000 out of 18,000 universities worldwide, making it the largest academic ranking of global universities.

CWUR uses seven factors in its methodology to rank the world's top 1,000 universities:

• Quality of education, measured by the number of a university's alumni who have won major international awards, prizes and medals relative to the university's size. This accounts for 15 percent of the ranking.
• Alumni employment, measured by the number of a university's alumni who have held CEO positions at the world's top companies relative to the university's size. 15 percent. 
• Quality of faculty, measured by the number of academics who have won major international awards, prizes and medals. 15 percent. 
• Research output, measured by the total number of research papers. 15 percent. 
• Quality publications, measured by the number of research papers appearing in top-tier journals. 15 percent. 
• Influence, measured by the number of research papers appearing in highly influential journals. 15 percent.
• Citations, measured by the number of highly cited research papers. 10 percent.

The United States has eight universities in the top 10. The United States also landed 213 in the top 1,000, followed by China with 108, the United Kingdom with 62, France with 58 and Japan with 56. In total, 61 countries have representatives in the top 1,000.

The Center for World University Rankings – headquartered in the United Arab Emirates – is a consulting organization providing policy advice, strategic insights and consulting services to governments and universities to improve educational and research outcomes.