The University of Nebraska-Lincoln is in the top quartile of U.S. News & World Report’s newest ranking of the world’s top universities.
Nebraska checked in at No. 245 among 1,000 institutions in the publication’s third annual list of Best Global Universities. Institutions from the United States and about 60 other countries were ranked based on 12 indicators that measure their academic research performance as well as their global and regional reputations.
The new global rankings also recognized several colleges and programs within the university, including agricultural sciences, biology and biochemistry, computer science, engineering, environment and ecology, geosciences, materials science, microbiology, physics, plant and animal science, and social sciences and public health.
Nebraska was No. 244 in last year’s rankings, which ranked about 300 fewer institutions than this year’s expanded list of schools.
“We are pleased to see the hard work and excellence at our university reflected in the latest rankings,” Chancellor Ronnie Green said. “We’re committed to building on our momentum and further becoming a distinctive Big Ten university, and the latest news from U.S. News shows that we’re headed in the right direction.”
The Best Global Universities methodology weighed factors that measure a university’s global and regional research reputation and academic research performance using bibliometric indicators such as publications, citations and international collaboration. Each subject ranking has its own methodology based on academic research performance and reputation in that specific area.
This year, U.S. News further emphasized excellence in academic research by factoring in the total number of highly cited papers in the top 1 percent of their respective fields and the percentage of a university’s total papers that are among the top 1 percent of most-cited papers.
“For over 30 years, U.S. News has helped students better understand the range of college options available to them in the U.S.,” said Anita Narayan, the publication’s managing editor. “We take the same in-depth approach in our Best Global Universities to help students understand their college options worldwide.”
In September, U.S. News ranked Nebraska in the top half of the first tier of U.S. national universities. In January, four online programs were recognized in U.S. News’ Best Online Programs rankings. The university’s online graduate education, bachelor of science in applied science, master of business administration and master of engineering management online programs were among the nation’s top programs.
In March, several graduate programs at Nebraska also were ranked among the nation’s best. They included the College of Education and Human Sciences’ graduate program in education as well as its graduate speech pathology and audiology programs; the College of Law; CBA’s part-time MBA; the College of Engineering; and the ceramics program at the Hixson-Lied College of Fine and Performing Arts.
