This year, the University of New Mexico has been ranked among the top 1,000 colleges in the world by the Center for World University Rankings (CWUR).
According to its website, the CWUR considers more than 25,000 institutions of higher learning worldwide in its ranking, “making it the largest academic ranking of global universities.”
Out of the 1,000 international universities listed in the ranking, UNM is ranked 196th, while nationally UNM is ranked 82nd out of the 224 American institutions on the list.
The CWUR began publishing its annual study in 2012. At the time, the rankings included only the top 100 universities worldwide, and has since increased ten fold.
Instead of relying on surveys and university data submissions to determine the quality of education and training of students as well as the prestige of faculty members and the quality of their research, the Saudi Arabia-based CWUR uses eight “objective and robust” indicators to rank the world’s top universities. They are as follows:
- An institution’s 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.
- Alumni employment, measured by the number of an institution’s alumni who have held CEO positions at the world’s top companies, relative to its size.
- Quality of faculty, measured by the number of academics who have received major global accolades.
Each of these indicators accounts for 25 percent of an institution’s ranking, while the remaining five indicators account for five percent each.
They include:
- An institution’s publications and its influence, both measured by the number of research papers published in highly influential academic journals.
- Citations, measured by how frequently cited those research papers are.
- Broad Impact and Patents.
UNM’s highest-ranking indicators - which were in the fields of Citations (90) and Patents (119) - illustrate the high level of faculty research conducted at UNM, University Provost Chaouki Abdallah said.
Abdallah said attaining high rankings from organizations such as the CWUR, of which there are several, is never an end in itself. Instead, they must be viewed by the students and other constituents through the lens of the mission of the University.
Each of these ranking organizations focuses on a different interpretation of a university’s desired function, he said. Some focus on their graduates' rates of employment or economic development, while others reward selectivity and reputation.
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“An analogy might be to compare people’s weight without mentioning their height, age, or medical conditions,” Abdallah said. “It is more important to monitor long-term trends in specific objective measures such as the number of patents and citations, as they are specific, measurable and more relevant to our mission as a public flagship university.”
