USC rises to 73rd place among world universities

USC jumped 39 spots in Times Higher Education’s World University Rankings 2010 in one year, moving from 112 to 73 in the rankings of universities across the globe.

The university received an overall score of 60.7 percent, which indicates that when compared to another randomly selected university, USC is ranked higher 63 percent of the time. USC tied with the University of Adelaide in Australia for the 73rd spot.

Dean of Admission Timothy Brunold said that although parents and students tend to consider the rankings when looking for a college, he said he believes the rankings don’t incorporate the actual undergraduate experience.

“Rating a university like a consumer product, such as a toaster or automobile, is an iffy proposition … you have to be an informed consumer,” Brunold said.

THE ranked Harvard University as the best university in the world. Out of the top 200 universities, 72 were American universities. In North America, USC ranked 48th.

U.S. News & World Report, which annually releases its National Universities Rankings, ranked USC 23rd in the nation.

THE developed and implemented a new methodology for ranking universities this year. It used 13 indicators separated into five separate categories to rank each university.

“We are not 100 percent certain that these are the top 200 universities. This is not a deceleration, but an academic process. We encourage criticism,” said Richard Reynolds, a researcher at THE.

Each university received a percent score in every category, which was weighted based on its overall importance.

USC performed best in the citation category, receiving a score of 71.9 percent. The citation category is defined as the number of times that a university’s research appears in a sampling of 12,000 research journals over a five-year period.

Citation is 32.5 percent of the composite score. USC received its second highest score in the citation category last year.

USC achieved its lowest score in international mix of 31.2 percent. THE defines international mix as the ratio of international academic staff to total academic staff and the ratio of international students to total students.

Brunold said, however, that the university has a higher percentage of international students.

“For eight years running, USC has had more international students than any other university in the United States,” Brunold said.

USC’s second lowest score was a 48.7 percent in research. The university’s research was evaluated for its volume, research income and reputation, and represented 30 percent of the overall score.

Yet, the university scored well in teaching, which is determined mostly though a reputational survey completed by professionals from various regions and across various disciplines.

“The rankings are something we can look positively toward. Hopefully USC can build on that,” said Rodrigo Aguiar, an undeclared sophomore.

Ashima Sharma, a freshman majoring in chemical engineering, said she thought rankings were initially important when applying to college.

“Rankings are helpful when applying to college, but once you’re in college, it’s the experience that matters,” she said.