Which Ohio university is the best in the world?
According to U.S. News & World Report’s latest Best Global Universities rankings, a handful of other institutions take top tier as the world’s-best, namely Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford.
Nonetheless, the Buckeye state made a respectful showing in the ranking, which scored 2,250 schools representing 105 countries based on international reputation and the quality of academic research.
Ohio State University landed in the top chunk of schools at No. 64. The University of Cincinnati fell into the top 250 schools at No. 213. Miami University and Ohio University fell closer to the middle of the pack.
Schools in China made up the majority of institutions included in the final ranking, with 409. The United States’ showing landed second, with 275 schools included. India came third with 123 schools ranked, then came the United Kingdom with a showing of 93 schools.
LaMont Jones, education editor at U.S. News, said the global snapshot is particularly significant this year, when declining birth rates and visa restrictions have compounded enrollment challenges for U.S. universities.
“Partly in response to a decline in the domestic applicant pool – and the revenue they represent – more U.S. colleges are establishing or expanding their footprint abroad,” Jones said in a press release. “The U.S. leads in this type of international expansion with upward of 100 branch campuses in more than three dozen countries and counting.”
How were the rankings calculated?
U.S. News & World Report, a digital media company that calculates and publishes independent rankings of K-12 schools and universities, shared its 12th annual, 2026-27 rating of universities around the world on June 16.
To curate its pool of schools, U.S. News started with the top 250 universities based off a survey of global reputation. The survey, offered in eight languages (Arabic, Chinese, English, French, German, Japanese, Portuguese and Spanish), was sent to over 23,000 academics from more than 100 countries over a five-year span, 2021 to 2025.
Then, it grouped in schools that published at least 1,250 academic papers during 2020 to 2024.
Rankings were calculated according to thirteen measures, each with varying weights. The greatest amount of weight in the formula was granted to global research reputation and regional research reputation – both gathered in the survey data. More specific measures included the total number of a school’s publications shared in high-quality journals and the percentage of those publications that are frequently cited around the world.
A school’s level of international collaboration was also taken into account by calculating the rate of a school’s papers authored by international scholars.
See where your Ohio alma mater ranked
Use the search bar in the table below to see where your Ohio alma mater ranked among the top institutions around the world.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: U.S. News ranks world’s best universities. Where UC, Ohio State fall
Reporting by Grace Tucker, Cincinnati Enquirer / Cincinnati Enquirer
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Grace Tucker, Cincinnati Enquirer | USA TODAY Network
