UC Irvine placed 132nd on the Times of London’s annual ranking of the world’s top universities, rising eight spots on a list that includes 500 schools. Only three years ago, Irvine was in 253rd place, trailing many institutions that are not well known in the United States.
Where California schools ranked
| Institution | 2008 | 2007 |
|---|---|---|
| Caltech | 5th | 7th |
| Stanford | 17 | 19 |
| UCLA | 30 | 41 |
| UC Berkeley | 36 | 22 |
| UC San Diego | 58 | 58 |
| UC Davis | 89 | 96 |
| UC San Diego | 58 | 58 |
| UC Santa Barbara | 98 | 117 |
| USC | 102 | 117 |
| UC Irvine | 132 | 140 |
The rankings — officially known as the QS World University Rankings – evaluates schools using six major benchmarks, including: academic peer review, employer review, faculty-student ratio, citations per faculty, number of international faculty and number of international students. The schools represent a cross-section of academia, from large private research universities like Harvard (No. 1 on the list) to the Tokyo Institute of Technology, a more narrowly focused public institution.
UCI rose during a year in which Berkeley fell 14 spots. But Irvine continues to lag behind most of California’s leading research schools, which is partly due to UCI’s comparative youth. UCI opened in 1965. Caltech and Stanford were founded in the 1890s and UCLA can date its origins to the Los Angeles State Normal School, which opened in 1881.
