UW-Madison again scores highly in world university rankings

Photo: Aerial view of campus with Bascom Hall in the center

Bascom Hall is pictured in an aerial view of the University of Wisconsin–Madison campus. Photo: Jeff Miller

The University of Wisconsin–Madison has been ranked 26th worldwide by the Center for World University Rankings.

Last year, UW–Madison ranked 25^th overall. The university placed 20^th nationally (19th last year), quality of education, 34^th (28^th last year); alumni employment, 93rd (80^th last year); quality of faculty, 34^th (35th last year), research performance, 31^st (27^th last year).

The Center for World University Rankings (CWUR) uses seven indicators to rank the world’s universities without relying on surveys and university data submissions. The quality of education indicator, for example, measures the weighted number of an institution’s alumni who have won major awards, medals and prizes relative to the institution’s size. The alumni employment category is based on alumni who have held top executive positions at the world’s top companies relative to the university’s size.

The quality of faculty measures how many faculty members who have won major international awards, prizes, and medals. Research performance is measured using four categories: the total number of research papers, high-quality publications, measured by the number of research papers appearing in top-tier journals, influence, measured by the number of research papers appearing in highly influential journals, and citations, measured by the number of highly-cited research papers.

The center is a consulting organization providing policy advice, strategic insights, and consulting services to governments and universities to improve educational and research outcomes. Its rankings are known for objectivity, transparency, and consistency and are used by students, academics, university administrators and government officials around the world.

The ranking started out in 2012 with the aim of ranking the top 100 global universities. The ranking was quickly reported worldwide, and many requests were received to expand it. Since 2014, it has listed the top 1,000 out of more than 25,000 institutions of higher education worldwide.

For the complete list, visit cwur.org