UC Berkeley rated world’s top public and fourth-best overall by U.S. News

UC Berkeley retains its standing as the world’s No. 1 public and fourth-best university overall in U.S. News & World Report’s latest global rankings.

Harvard, MIT and Stanford claimed the top three spots, with the UK’s University of Oxford trailing Berkeley in fifth place.

The California Institute of Technology came in sixth, with the University of Cambridge, Columbia, Princeton and Johns Hopkins tied with Yale and the University of Washington rounding off the top 10.

As a public university, UC Berkeley ranked first globally, with the University of Washington in Seattle in 10th place and UCLA in 13th. UCSF and UC San Diego placed 15th and 16th.

The U.S. News & World Report’s Best Global University Rankings, made public today, focus on the publication of academic research and on reputation. This year, 1,250 universities in 74 countries were evaluated

In subject areas, UC Berkeley ranked first in chemistry and environment/ecology; second in physics; third in biology and biochemistry and in space science; fourth in plant and animal science; and fifth in economics and business, engineering, materials science and mathematics.

Among other things, the U.S. News global rankings measure a university’s international and regional reputation and its performance in academic research, using such indicators as citations and publications. This year, Berkeley placed fifth for its global research standing and third for regional research reputation.

Using different criteria, U.S. News also issues “America’s Best Colleges” rankings annually. In this year’s national ratings, UC Berkeley topped the list of public universities and ranked 21st overall.