Daily News

UMass Named One of 100 Best Universities in the World

BOSTON — The University of Massachusetts has been named one of the world’s top 100 universities by Times Higher Education in the magazine’s annual global survey. UMass was ranked 91st in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings, jumping 41 places in a single year and moving into the top 20 of U.S. public universities.

The rankings use 13 separate performance indicators to examine a university’s strengths against all its core missions: teaching, research, knowledge transfer, and international outlook. About 700 universities are pre-selected for inclusion in the survey using public research-excellence data before further data is collected and analyzed.

UMass was ranked 19th among all public universities in the U.S., and first in New England. Among private and public universities, UMass placed seventh in the six-state New England region. The California Institute of Technology was rated the highest of all universities, followed by Harvard and Oxford. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology came in sixth.

UMass President Robert Caret said he was pleased with the global recognition of the university’s commitment to excellence. “This world ranking reflects the hard work of staff, faculty, and students; the high-quality teaching on all five UMass campuses; and the university’s leading-edge research,” he said.

Times Higher Education Rankings Editor Phil Baty said universities must meet high standards against rigorous and comprehensive criteria, and that climbing 41 places since last year’s rankings is a significant achievement. “This accomplishment is perhaps made more impressive by the fact that the University of Massachusetts has risen further up the table this year against a backdrop of falls for many of the USA’s universities, and against mounting competition from rising stars in East Asia, which have been enjoying strong financial support.”

This 41-spot jump in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings follows substantial gains made by individual UMass campuses in national rankings, including U.S. News & World Report, Forbes, Kiplinger’s, and Payscale.

“We work to continually improve the quality and value of a UMass education, and it is gratifying to have our success acknowledged not only nationally, but also on the world stage,” Caret said.

Henry Thomas III, chairman of the UMass board of trustees, said the board took great pride in this latest in a string of accomplishments. “Massachusetts is a leader in education, and its state university system is recognized as a leader in higher education worldwide. We are grateful for this recognition of our achievements and the commitment we make to progress each and every year.”

Full results of the annual rankings are available at www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/world-university-rankings.