UC San Diego Named 8th Best U.S. Public University by Center for World University Rankings

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The University of California San Diego ranks eighth among U.S. public universities, according to the latest Center for World University Rankings (CWUR).

Released today, the 2021-22 edition of the “Global 2000 List by the Center for World University Rankings” evaluated nearly 20,000 universities worldwide based on quality of education, alumni employment, quality of faculty and research performance.

The university was ranked No. 22 among all U.S. universities and 34th worldwide in the annual list. UC San Diego achieved high marks for quality of faculty (12th) and research performance (19th).

“UC San Diego faculty are consistently recognized for their quality, and their collaborative research continues to advance discoveries, drive innovation and influence a wide variety of fields in science, technology and art,” said Chancellor Pradeep K. Khosla. “This year especially, faculty and researchers demonstrated tremendous strength, resilience and ingenuity as they rose to meet new challenges presented by the pandemic. They continued to deliver excellent instruction and conduct breakthrough research to address the global health crisis.”

From Nobel laureates to National Medal of Science awardees, UC San Diego faculty and faculty emeriti are among the world’s most influential in their fields. In May, Pulitzer Prize-winning composer and Distinguished Professor of Music Anthony Davis will be inducted into the prestigious American Academy of Arts and Letters. The Academy was founded in 1898 and is the nation’s leading honor society of the country’s top architects, artists, composers and writers. In February, four UC San Diego faculty members were awarded 2021 Sloan Research Fellowships: Angela Choy, assistant professor of biological oceanography; Brandon Seward, assistant professor of mathematics; Sheng Xu, assistant professor of nanoengineering; and Joel Yuen-Zhou, assistant professor of chemistry/biochemistry. Sloan Research Fellowships are one of the most competitive and prestigious awards available to early career researchers and 140 UC San Diego faculty members have been awarded to date.

As an agent of change, UC San Diego produces groundbreaking research that helps to spur innovation addressing local, national and global challenges. In a new study published in the journal Frontiers in Psychiatry, researchers at UC San Diego School of Medicine reported that wisdom and loneliness appear to influence, and/or be influenced by, microbial diversity of the gut. Physicists at UC San Diego have also created new artificial devices made of quantum material called “neuristors” that mimic basic learning functions carried out by neurons in the human brain.

In addition to this latest accolade from CWUR, UC San Diego is consistently ranked among the country’s top colleges and featured among global university ranking lists. Last month, the U.S. News & World Report 2022 Best Graduate Schools rankings gave high marks to the campus’s graduate education in political science (eighth in the nation) and the Jacobs School of Engineering (ninth in the nation). Last spring, QS World University Ranking also named UC San Diego as the nation’s sixth best public university in their inaugural list of America’s top universities based on diversity, employability and internationalization.

To read the complete list from CWUR, visit the organization’s website. For a listing of UC San Diego rankings and accolades, visit the Campus Profile.