Berkeley top U.S. public university in new ARWU rankings

New global rankings place UC Berkeley at the pinnacle of public universities on the U.S. and fifth overall in the world.

The 2018 Academic Rankings of World Universities, an assessment of 500 top institutions around the globe by the ShanghaiRanking Consultancy, were published today.

As it has since the rankings began in 2009, Berkeley placed in the top five universities worldwide. It follows Harvard, Stanford, Cambridge and MIT on the 2018 list.

Three other University of California campuses also made the top 25 — UCLA (11), UC San Diego (15) and UC San Francisco (21).

Among 54 subject areas, Berkeley ranked first in the world in chemistry, second in physics, materials science and engineering, and statistics and third in electrical and electronic engineering, biotechnology and economics.

In addition, Berkeley ranked fourth in sociology, water resources and ecology, and fifth in computer science and engineering, nanoscience and nanotechnology, energy science and engineering and transportation science and technology.

The ARWU rankings evaluate universities in five broad areas of academic study, focusing on the sciences and social sciences but leaving out the humanities, which make up a broad part of Berkeley’s mission.

The ARWU rankings are done by the ShanghaiRanking Consultancy, an organization that researches higher education. It has been the official publisher of the Academic Ranking of World Universities since 2009.

The full rankings can be viewed here, and the full subject rankings are posted here.