Vanderbilt University leaped 61 places in the most comprehensive and respected worldwide rankings of universities, moving to No. 53 on the 2006 World University Rankings by The Times of London.
The rankings were released by The Times of London on Oct. 6. Vanderbilt, which was ranked No. 114 last year, was the sole university from Tennessee to make the list.
Vanderbilt‘s improved ranking was buffeted by a strong score of 81 out of 100 for faculty/student ratio. The rankings also considered peer review scores, graduate recruiter reviews, citations of academic papers and percentage of international students and faculty.
“The Times represents perhaps the ‘gold standard‘ of university rankings, so this kind of recognition is particularly valuable,” said Vanderbilt Chancellor Gordon Gee. “Vanderbilt clearly stands side-by-side with the very best universities in the world, which is a tribute to the quality of our faculty and students.”
Vanderbilt was ranked the No. 26 university in North America, up from No. 53 last year; and the No. 9 university in the world for academic staff-to-student ratio. As of the fall 2005 semester, Vanderbilt had a 9-to-1 ratio of faculty to students.
Forty percent of the rankings were derived from peer reviews based on data from 3,703 academics around the world. The opinions of graduate recruiters counted for 10 percent. Forty percent of the rankings are the result of quantitative measures, of which the academic staff-to-student ratio and citations of academic papers each count for 20 percent. Ten percent of the grade depends on the extent that universities are global, based on percentages of overseas faculty and students.
The top 10 universities in the world as cited by The Times of London were, in order, Harvard University, Cambridge University, Oxford University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Yale University, Stanford University, California Institute of Technology, University of California-Berkeley, Imperial College and Princeton University.
Media contact: Jim Patterson, (615) 322-NEWS
jim.patterson@vanderbilt.edu