Late-summer rankings from three magazines all listed the University of Washington as one of the best in the country—or the world.
In an Aug. 13 report by Newsweek, the University of Washington ranked 22nd among the best “global” universities in the world. Counting only public research universities in the U.S., the UW ranked fifth. The magazine put Harvard University at the top of its list.
Newsweek ranked universities by eight criteria:
In a different type of rating, Washington Monthly ranked the UW 15th in how it benefits the country. Washington Monthly ranks schools on three measures: as engines of social mobility, as climates for fostering scientific and humanistic research, and as promoter’s of an ethic of service to the country. In this group, the magazine rated MIT the top university, but the editors say that “state schools are, by our measure, the primary heroes of higher education in the United States today.”
In the most publicized college rankings, the UW moved from 45 to 42 among all universities and from 13 to 11 nationally among public universities in the annual rankings of “America’s best colleges” published by U.S. News & World Report. The magazine put Princeton University at the top of its list for 2007.
“These rankings highlight two very important characteristics of the University of Washington,” says President Mark A. Emmert, ’75. “The Newsweek ranking indicates the University’s strengths as a generator of new knowledge. That is a critical part of our research mission, and we are indeed one of the world’s leading university’s in this regard. The Washington Monthly ranking reflects the UW’s strong commitment to diversity and to serving students from all socio-economic backgrounds. Together the rankings reflect our basic mission: providing broad access to exceptionally high quality education.”
Earlier rankings by Shanghai Jiaotong University in China, published in the The Economist magazine, ranked the UW 17th among the world’s leading universities.