UW Ranks Among Top 20 Universities In The World

SEATTLE — The University of Washington is one of the best in the world according to new international rankings that analyzed more than 2,500 institutions of higher learning across the globe. The Academic Ranking of World Universities has been compiled annually since 2003 and is regarded as one of the most influential publications of its kind in the world.

According to its official website, the annual ranking began as a project of Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China and is now published by Shanghai Ranking Consultancy, which operates independently from universities.

The annual list takes six factors into account for each university, including how many Nobel Prize winners and highly-cited researchers are among alumni and staff, along with the number of articles published in top academic journals. About 10 percent of the score is derived from each university's "per capita academic performance."

This year, the University of Washington ranked 17th in the world, and its best-performing subjects include atmospheric science, oceanography, public health and biological sciences. As The Seattle Times notes, this year's placement puts UW ahead of some prestigious competition, including New York University and Northwestern. Washington State University also made the cut, landing among the ranking's "301-400" range.

American universities performed well overall, claiming eight of the top 10 spots on the list.

Here are the top 10 institutions on the 2022 Academic Ranking of World Universities:

1. Harvard University
2. Stanford University
3. Massachusetts Insitute of Technology
4. University of Cambridge
5. University of California, Berkeley
6. Princeton University
7. University of Oxford
8. Columbia University
9. California Institute of Technology
10. University of Chicago