The University of Illinois at Chicago is ranked 14th in the country among public universities in the listing of America’s top universities by QS World University Rankings. Overall, UIC is ranked 43rd—tied with Case Western Reserve University—out of 300 public and private U.S. universities awarding doctoral degrees.
This is the first time that the rankings by QS Quacquarelli Symonds, a global higher education research company that publishes the QS World University Rankings, focused solely on U.S. institutions. UIC’s international and national reputation is growing. UIC ranked 26th among U.S. public universities in the 2020 QS World Rankings.
QS ranked the universities according to their research performance and career outcomes, as well as a range of indicators assessing each institution’s social impact and attempts to foster equitability, according to QS CEO Nunzio Quacquarelli.
Among the indicators QS looked at were employability, which included employment prospects of graduating students; diversity and internationalization, which looked at how the institution was striving toward being as inclusive as possible; the learning experience, which looks at the overall learning environment, student-faculty ratio, and retention and graduation rates; and research, which demonstrates how the institution is impacting knowledge creation.
“This year’s QS rankings are another strong indicator of the outstanding academic quality and reputation of UIC’s faculty and programs,” said UIC Chancellor Michael D. Amiridis. “Our commitment to excellence, achievement, and diversity is by now being recognized consistently and internationally, and our institutional reputation continues to ascend among the top public universities in the country.”
UIC ranked higher than many public Association of American Universities institutions, as well as ten of the 14 Big Ten Universities. Despite differences in the methodology, the QS rankings are consistent with the rankings of the Times of Higher Education/Wall Street Journal, which last fall placed UIC 21st among public U.S. universities.