Global Universities’ Reputations Vary Greatly Internationally, Regionally

U.S. News is publishing a first-ever analysis of universities from our Best Global Universities rankings that compares a school’s regional research reputation to its global research reputation.

This analysis of key components of the Best Global Universities rankings, which are powered by Thomson Reuters InCites^TM research analytics solutions, measures the degree to which a university’s regional research reputation rank among the top 500 global universities rankings exceeds or falls short of its global research reputation rank.

Both the global research and regional research reputation ranks are based on the results of Thomson Reuters’ Academic Reputation Survey, which asks academics around the world to separately rate universities globally and in the region with which they are familiar.

U.S. News’ global ranking is the only one that uses a regional research reputation factor. This indicator is important since it shows which universities are highly or not so highly thought of in their region by other academics. In some cases, these universities haven’t received that same level of recognition globally.

If a university is overperforming its regional reputation — with a global research reputation rank that is higher than its regional research reputation rank — it means that the school has a much better reputation for research globally than in its own region.

For many of these schools, their global research reputation more fully reflects how relatively well they are doing in the other research impact factors used in the U.S. News Best Global Universities rankings.

On the other hand, if a university is underperforming — with a regional research reputation rank that is far higher than its global research reputation rank — it means that the school is more highly thought of in its region than farther afield.

That could be because the school’s research is not valued as much by academics outside its own geographic region, or because they just haven’t yet fully realized the impact of the school’s research achievements.

The U.S. had the largest number of overperforming universities with nine schools. In second place was Canada with eight schools, and the United Kingdom came in third with seven schools. The University of Massachusetts–Worcester in the U.S. is the world’s largest overperformer. Its global research reputation rank of 306 surpassed its regional research reputation rank of 588 by 282 places. Coming in second place was the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine in the United Kingdom. Its global research reputation rank of 118 was higher than its regional research reputation rank of 382 by 264 places.

Australia had the largest number of underperforming universities with 10 schools. Brazil came in second place with five schools and New Zealand and South Africa were tied for third with three schools each. The University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa is the world’s largest underperformer. Its global research rank of 477 was surpassed by its regional research reputation rank of 32 by 445 places. Coming in second place was Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. Its global research rank of 537 was lower than its regional research reputation rank of 99 by 438 places.

The U.S. News methodology for the Best Global Universities rankings gives both the global research and regional research reputation score a weight of 12.5 percent in the overall ranking model. Both global and regional research reputations are subjective, but they are also important because a diploma from a distinguished university can help graduates get good jobs or gain admission to top-notch graduate programs.

Only schools that were numerically ranked in the top 500 Best Global Universities rankings were included in this analysis. The global research reputation and regional research reputation numerical ranks are out of the pool of 750 universities that was used to rank the top 500 schools.

Overperformers

The table below lists the top 25 overperforming schools in our Best Global Universities rankings. These schools’ global research reputation numerical ranks among the top 500 Best Global Universities were higher than their regional research reputation ranks by the largest number of ranking places.

Name	Country	Overall rank in top 500	Global research reputation rank	Regional research reputation rank	Difference between global and regional reputation rank
University of Massachusetts–Worcester	U.S.	286	306	588	282
London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine	United Kingdom	91	118	382	264
Mayo Clinic	U.S.	101	233	476	243
University of Manitoba	Canada	351	410	649	239
University of Guelph	Canada	390	232	467	235
University of Montreal	Canada	96	120	350	230
Laval University	Canada	234	278	507	229
University of Ottawa	Canada	194	241	466	225
University of Texas Medical Branch–Galveston	U.S.	446	406	606	200
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai	U.S.	160	271	470	199
University of Calgary	Canada	203	222	421	199
University of Reading	United Kingdom	301	139	338	199
Loughborough University	United Kingdom	470	207	404	197
University of Saskatchewan	Canada	473	470	662	192
University of Hawaii–Manoa	U.S.	321	220	412	192
University of Mississippi	U.S.	330	502	689	187
McMaster University	Canada	141	129	311	182
University of Dundee	United Kingdom	328	324	505	181
University of Leicester	United Kingdom	254	315	492	177
University of Houston	U.S.	304	350	525	175
Wageningen University and Research Center	Netherlands	134	110	284	174
University of Texas Health Science Center–Houston	U.S.	201	230	402	172
University of East Anglia	United Kingdom	274	290	460	170
University of St Andrews	United Kingdom	208	162	332	170
University at Buffalo–SUNY	U.S.	420	248	416	168

Underperformers

This table shows the top 25 underperforming schools in our Best Global Universities rankings. These schools’ global research reputation numerical ranks among the top 500 Best Global Universities were lower than their regional research reputation ranks by the largest number of ranking places.

Name	Country	Overall rank in top 500	Global research reputation rank	Regional research reputation rank	Difference between global and regional reputation rank
University of KwaZulu-Natal	South Africa	417	477	32	-445
Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro	Brazil	448	537	99	-438
University of South Australia	Australia	479	535	112	-423
Deakin University	Australia	424	496	97	-399
University of Tasmania	Australia	395	501	103	-398
Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul	Brazil	373	393	23	-370
University of Canterbury	New Zealand	383	438	77	-361
University of Wollongong	Australia	348	457	106	-351
Massey University	New Zealand	481	445	109	-336
Stellenbosch University	South Africa	371	349	16	-333
Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile	Chile	405	378	47	-331
Griffith University	Australia	417	399	71	-328
Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais	Brazil	316	347	26	-321
Universidad de Chile	Chile	453	352	36	-316
University of Technology Sydney	Australia	448	376	81	-295
Comenius University in Bratislava	Slovakia	478	563	270	-293
Curtin University of Technology	Australia	360	386	98	-288
James Cook University	Australia	365	431	148	-283
Universidade Federal de São Paulo	Brazil	443	320	43	-277
Queensland University of Technology	Australia	352	323	55	-268
Universidade Estadual Paulista	Brazil	365	300	37	-263
University of Witwatersrand	South Africa	270	266	15	-251
Macquarie University	Australia	321	304	56	-248
University of Otago	New Zealand	243	280	35	-245
University of Buenos Aires	Argentina	260	257	22	-235