Pitt slips in THE world rankings
Pitt tied for No. 91 with the University of Massachusetts in the annual Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings, down from No. 78 in the 2013-14 rankings.
California Institute of Technology was at the top of the London-based publication’s 2014-15 rankings, followed by Harvard, Oxford, Stanford, Cambridge and Massachusetts Institute of Technology making up the top six. Princeton, University of California-Berkeley, and, tied at No. 9, Imperial College London and Yale, rounded out the top 10.
The rankings are based on 13 performance indicators grouped into five areas: teaching (30 percent), research volume, income and reputation (30 percent), citations/research influence (30 percent), industry income/innovation (2.5 percent), and international outlook (7.5 percent). The methodology has remained the same since 2011-12.
During that four-year time span, Pitt fell 32 places, reflecting a trend in U.S. universities’ declining performance in the rankings.
Although the U.S. has 74 universities in the top 200, the most of any nation, an analysis of rankings 2011-12 to 2014-15 shows U.S. universities collectively suffering the steepest losses, falling a total of 692 places in that four-year span, as countries including the Netherlands (up 265 places), Germany (up 250 places) and Australia (up 134 places) rise in the THE world rankings.
Subject rankings
Pitt was No. 53 in THE’s ranking of the top 100 universities for arts and humanities, down from No. 47 last year; No. 22 in clinical, pre-clinical and health, up from No. 24 last year; and No. 81 in social sciences, down from No. 72 last year. It was not listed in the top 100 for engineering and technology, life sciences or physical sciences.
World reputation rankings
Pitt was among universities ranked No. 71-80 in the 2014 THE World Reputation Rankings, based on subjective judgment of invited senior academics.
Joining Pitt in the 71-80 range were the University of Amsterdam, Boston University, Humboldt-Universitat zu Berlin, Indiana University, KU Leuven, Middle East Technical University, Universite Paris-Sorbonne, Texas A&M and Washington University in St. Louis.
Pitt held steady with last year’s ranking among institutions No. 71-80.
The complete rankings can be found at www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/world-university-rankings/2014-15/world-ranking.
— Kimberly K. Barlow