Published: June 4, 2018

CU Boulder last week was named No. 50 out of 18,000 universities worldwide by the Center for World University Rankings, which is said to publish the only global university ranking that measures the quality of education and training of students, as well as the prestige of faculty members and the quality of faculty research, without relying on surveys and university data submissions.

Of particular note, CU Boulder ranked as follows:

  • National Rank: 32
  • Quality of Education Rank: 134
  • Alumni Employment Rank: 170
  • Quality of Faculty Rank: 41
  • Research Output Rank: 145
  • Quality of Publications Rank: 111
  • Influence Rank: 40
  • Citations Rank: 59
  • Overall Score: 84.4

CWUR uses seven objective and robust indicators including:

  1. Quality of education, measured by the number of a university's alumni who have won major international awards, prizes and medals relative to the university's size (15 percent)
  2. Alumni employment, measured by the number of a university's alumni who have held CEO positions at the world's top companies relative to the university's size (15 percent)
  3. Quality of faculty, measured by the number of academics who have won major international awards, prizes and medals (15 percent)
  4. Research output, measured by the total number of research papers (15 percent)
  5. Quality publications, measured by the number of research papers appearing in top-tier journals (15 percent)
  6. Influence, measured by the number of research papers appearing in highly-influential journals (15 percent)
  7. Citations, measured by the number of highly-cited research papers (10 percent)

    The methodology has been enhanced this year, with research now accounting for 70 percent of the total score, according to CWUR.