U.S. News Media Group Releases 2011 Ranking of World's Best Universities

WASHINGTON, Oct. 18, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- U.S. News Media Group, one of the nation's leading sources of service journalism and news, today released the fourth annual edition of the World's Best Universities rankings. The 2011 World's Best rankings, which include colleges and universities in the United States and across the globe, are available online at www.usnews.com/worldsbest.

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The World's Best Universities rankings, updated annually by U.S. News, are based on the 2011 QS World University Rankings®, developed by QS Quacquarelli Symonds, one of the world's leading resources for careers and education. Using a different methodology and ranking data than the well-known U.S. News Best Colleges rankings, the World's Best Universities rates universities on factors such as the proportion of international faculty and the proportion of international students.

"Today's job market is extremely competitive. College graduates are not only competing for jobs with students from their university or country, but they're also competing with students from across the world," said U.S. News Media Group Editor and Chief Content Officer Brian Kelly. "As more students look to attend institutions abroad, we want to provide our readers with resources like the World's Best Universities rankings so they can compare and select the best international schools for their needs, as well as better understand how American institutions perform when compared with those around the world."

The World's Best Universities rankings are among the most comprehensive of their kind and include the following lists: Top 400 Universities Worldwide, Top 100 Asian Universities, and Top 100 Latin American Universities. Also new this year is the inclusion of the global rankings in 24 different subject disciplines, such as electrical engineering, accounting and finance, and biological sciences. In addition to the new rankings data, this is the first edition of the World's Best Universities rankings to be launched on the newly redesigned U.S. News Education site, which provides increased usability and navigation.

An in-depth methodology was used to determine the 2011 rankings. For the Top 400 Universities, six distinct indicators of excellence were evaluated: academic reputation, employer reputation, faculty-student ratio, proportion of international faculty, proportion of international students, and citations per faculty. The two regional rankings each have distinct methodologies from the global Top 400 to better reflect the uniqueness of those regions, using indicators such as the specific region's academic and employer reputations, citations per paper, and proportion of staff with Ph.D.s.

For additional information on the 2011 ranking of the World's Best Universities, please visit www.usnews.com/worldsbest.

World's Best Universities Rankings 2011

* For the full list of rankings, visit www.usnews.com/worldsbest

Top 400 Universities Worldwide

1. University of Cambridge (United Kingdom)
2. Harvard University (United States)
3. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (United States)
4. Yale University (United States)
5. University of Oxford (United Kingdom)
6. Imperial College London (United Kingdom)
7. UCL (University College London) (United Kingdom)
8. University of Chicago (United States)
9. University of Pennsylvania (United States)
10. Columbia University (United States)

About the U.S. News Media Group

The U.S. News Media Group is a multi-platform publisher of news and analysis, which includes the digital-only U.S. News Weekly magazine, www.usnews.com, and www.rankingsandreviews.com. Focusing on Health, Money, Education, Travel, Cars, and Public Service/Opinion, the U.S. News Media Group has earned a reputation as the leading provider of service news and information that improves the quality of life of its readers. The U.S. News Media Group's signature franchise includes its News You Can Use® brand of journalism and its "Best" series of consumer guides that include rankings of colleges, graduate schools, hospitals, mutual funds, health plans, and more.

About QS Quacquarelli Symonds

QS's mission is "to enable motivated people to fulfill their potential through educational achievement, international mobility and career development." Founded in 1990, today QS is the leading information and events company specializing in the higher education sector, worldwide. Through exclusive events, publications, research and interactive web tools, QS links undergraduate, graduate, MBA and executive communities around the world with recruiters and education providers. QS's websites include: www.topuniversities.com, www.topgradschool.com, www.topmba.com, and www.qs.com. The QS team is diverse, made up of over 200 individuals from 35 countries and includes internationally recognized experts in the higher and business education arena. QS operates globally from offices in London, Paris, New York, Singapore, Stuttgart, Beijing, Shanghai, Sydney, Washington DC, Boston, and Johannesburg.

SOURCE U.S. News & World Report