UC Berkeley is the No. 1 U.S. public university, the sixth-best among public and private universities nationally and the world’s ninth-best university overall, according to the Times Higher Education’s 2024 World University Rankings, released today (Sept. 27, 2023).   

The Times Higher Ed World University Rankings evaluated more than 1,900 universities across 99 countries and territories. 

This year the rankings, now in their 20th edition, were based on five criteria: teaching (the learning environment); research environment (volume, income and reputation); research quality (citation impact, research strength, research excellence and research influence); international outlook (staff, students and research); and industry (income and patents).

In the overall global rankings, the United Kingdom’s University of Oxford ranked first among private and public universities worldwide, followed by Stanford University, MIT, Harvard University, the University of Cambridge, Princeton University, the California Institute of Technology, and Imperial College London. Berkeley and Yale University rounded out the Top 10.

When it came to the five best U.S. public universities, Berkeley topped the list. UCLA ranked second and took 18th place globally, followed by the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor (23rd); the University of Washington (25th) and UC San Diego (34th).   

The top U.S. public and private universities included Stanford University (2nd), MIT (3rd), the California Institute of Technology (7th), Berkeley (9th), and Yale University (10th).

The top U.S. public and private universities included Stanford University (2nd), MIT (3rd), Harvard University (4th), Princeton University (6th), the California Institute of Technology (7th), Berkeley (9th), and Yale University (10th). Rounding out the Top 10 was the University of Chicago (13th), Johns Hopkins University (15th), and University of Pennsylvania (16th).

Overall, Berkeley ranked fourth in the world for research quality with a score of 99 points out of 100; fourth for research environment (98.8 points), 18th for teaching (87.2 points), 62nd for industry (99.4 points), and 171st for international outlook (86.8 points).