In the competition for the best-ranked universities in the world, U.S. News looked at 2,250 research institutions in 150 countries.<\/p>\n
Last year, UC Berkeley ranked sixth. It was China’s prestigious Tsinghua University that knocked the East Bay institution down to seventh this year.<\/p>\n
U.S. News used 13 indicators<\/a> to rank schools around the world, including research reputation, citations and collaborations\u00a0– as well as the number of publications, conferences and books coming out of the universities.<\/p>\n Harvard took the top spot, followed by MIT, Stanford, University of Oxford (U.K.), University of Cambridge (U.K.), Tsinghua,\u00a0UC Berkeley and Yale.<\/p>\n Universities love such lists because everyone\u00a0– students, donors, researchers\u00a0– use them as a proxy for quality, like wine scores.<\/p>\n All rankings are controversial, however, because they are generalized and don’t get at the nuances that might make a school, or even a bottle of wine, the best choice for any individual.<\/p>\n Even the ranking company includes this admonition<\/a> in its announcement: “Keep in mind that a school’s rank should be one consideration\u00a0– not the lone determinant\u00a0– in where a student applies. The rankings assess academic research and reputation, but personal considerations\u00a0– including location, campus culture, strength of particular programs and cost\u00a0– are also very important.”<\/p>\n UC Berkeley ranked seventh worldwide and retained its status as one of two California schools in the global top 10 in U.S. News’ latest rankings. (Yalonda M. James\/S.F. Chronicle)<\/p>\n That said, UC Berkeley was quick to\u00a0post the news of its latest rankings<\/a>.<\/p>\n The announcement was\u00a0restrained, boasting only that it has consistently outranked rival UCLA on the global ranking since it was established in 2014.<\/p>\n It also quotes LaMont Jones Jr., managing editor for education at U.S. News, saying, “A strong position in the Best Global Universities rankings recognizes a school’s profound commitment to world-class research and cross-border academic excellence.”<\/p>\n In its post, UC Berkeley also noted that in September, it earned the top spot <\/a>among the nation’s best public universities for the second year in a row.<\/p>\n In that ranking<\/a>, U.S. News used 17 factors<\/a> to consider more than 1,700 colleges and universities across the U.S.\u00a0–\u00a0 including graduation rates, first-year retention rates, graduation of low-income students as measured by the rate of Pell Grant recipients earning a diploma, graduates’ debt, student-to-faculty ratio and financial resources per student.<\/p>\n The company listed UC Berkeley’s graduation rate as 80%, with a student-faculty ratio of 18 to 1, but did not highlight how the school did on the remaining factors.<\/p>\n UC Berkeley was also ranked 15th among all public and private universities in the country on the U.S. News listing in September. Stanford ranked fourth. Two other California schools were in the top 20: the California Institute of Technology\u00a0at No. 11 and UCLA at No. 17.<\/p>\n Subscribe<\/p>\n![\"UC](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/daed3294e8bca499a90318e72aef4e5c.jpeg\"\/)
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