UC Berkeley remains the nation’s top public and fourth best university in the latest national rankings by Quacquarelli Symonds (QS), a London-based company that ranks higher education institutions.
Berkeley came in fourth among public and private universities after Harvard, Stanford, and MIT, matching last year’s ranking.
UCLA, ranked fifth, was the only other public university to make the top 10 list for American institutions. Yale, Columbia, Princeton, New York University, and University of Pennsylvania finished out the top 10.
“We are pleased to consistently rank in the top tier of colleges and universities nationally and globally year after year,” Janet Gilmore, university spokesperson, wrote in an email.
The rankings, issued today, rate the nation’s best 352 universities according to 17 indicators focusing on diversity and inclusion, employability, sustainability and research. This is the second annual ranking of American institutions by QS.
“In a ranking dominated at the top by America’s private universities, the University of California at Berkeley is notable for its enduring status as one of the nation’s truly outstanding public institutions,” Jack Moran, QS spokesperson, said in a statement.
Unlike other rankings, QS evaluated universities “on which institutions are doing most to foster the essential relationship between education and social change,” according to Moran. For instance, the rankings considered the proportion of undergraduate students receiving Pell Grants and their graduation rates, student ethnicity mix and faculty gender diversity.
“The results provide compelling evidence that Californian institutions – particularly its public ones – are leading the way,” Moran said in a statement.
On a scale of zero to 100, Berkeley’s score this year is 77.7. The campus ranked third for its research and eighth for the employability of its graduates.
