11 Illinois Universities Ranked Among Best In The World: U.S. News

ILLINOIS — Nearly a dozen Illinois colleges and universities are among the schools included on this year’s list of the best universities in the world, including three that ranked in the top 100 of U.S. institutions included on the list, according to a new ranking from U.S. News & World Report released Tuesday.

The University of Chicago (22nd) and Northwestern (24th) were among the world’s top universities in the country, according to the report, which also placed the University of Illinois-Champaign-Urbana (74th) among the top 100 American schools on the list.

The publication’s 2023 Best Global Universities list ranks more than 2,000 schools in dozens of countries based on academic research and reputation.

Overall, 95 countries are represented on the 2023 list.

"The Best Global Universities rankings offer prospective students a valuable resource for exploring higher education options outside of their home country," Robert Morse, chief data strategist at U.S. News, said in a news release. "Over the past nine years, these rankings have expanded to include more schools and more subjects, while maintaining a consistent focus on institutions that prioritize academic research."

The University of Chicago was the state’s top-ranked university and was also among U.S. schools on this year’s list of best global universities. The school ranked fifth for its economics and business department and seventh among the schools listed on the report for its physics department. The University of Chicago also turned in a Top 10 ranking for its space science department, according to the report.

In addition to the University of Chicago, Northwestern, and the University of Illinois, the following schools in the state also made the list of top global educational destinations.

250 - The University of Illinois-Chicago

486 – Rush University

735 – Illinois Institute of Technology

860 – Loyola University, Chicago

928 – Northern Illinois University

1126 – Southern Illinois University

1526 – DePaul University

1535 – Illinois State University

This year’s list ranked an additional 250 schools, up from 1,750 last year.

Colleges in the United States secured four of the top five spots on the 2022 list. Harvard University came in at No. 1, followed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, and the University of California - Berkeley at No. 2, 3, and 4, respectively. Rounding out the top five is the United Kingdom’s University of Oxford.

This year, the United States had 280 universities in the overall ranking, surpassed only by China’s 338 universities. Other countries with the most schools on the list include:

• Japan: 105
• United Kingdom: 92
• India: 81

To determine which schools make the list, U.S. News analyzes data and metrics provided by global analytics company Clarivate, including student-to-faculty ratio and number of degrees awarded.

Researchers also used 13 different ranking factors and focused on each institution’s research performance.

Read more about the Best Global Universities methodology.

U.S. News also added five additional subject metrics for 2023, according to a release, including artificial intelligence, education and educational research, meteorology and atmospheric sciences, and water resources.

See this complete list of this year’s Best Global Universities.