UC system's global rankings slip amid funding cuts, international competition
The University of California has slipped in the rankings of an annual global survey of higher education, escalating concerns that funding woes and growing international competition are beginning to erode the quality of the nation's top public research university.
The survey released Wednesday by QS Quacquarelli Symonds, assessed nine UC campuses in more than three dozen subjects. Ratings dropped in 80 categories and improved in 24.
UC Berkeley and UCLA still were ranked in the top 10 universities in the world — with Berkeley tied with Harvard for third and UCLA in seventh place — but the biggest declines came at those flagship campuses. UCLA slipped in 22 subjects and improved in four while UC Berkeley dropped in 15 areas and rose in two. In civil and structural engineering, for instance, UCLA's ranking fell from 40th to 51st and Berkeley's from second to fifth.
"This is the first year where it's been so significant," Jack Moran, QS spokesman, said of UC's slippage across campuses and subject areas.
The higher-education report by the London-based analyst is one of the most closely watched.
The annual survey assessed 1,138 universities worldwide in terms of academic reputation, graduates' employability and research performance — based on the number of academic papers produced and how many times they were cited. The researchers sent surveys to 75,000 faculty members and 40,000 hiring managers around the world to assess institutions' reputations for academic excellence and the employability of their graduates. UC campuses received rankings in 40 of 48 total subjects considered, from accounting to veterinary sciences.
UC faculty leaders said the results confirm their fears that the university's excellence would decline without greater state investment. The state share of costs per student dropped from $14,690 in 1996 to $7,160 in 2017, according to UC data. The university has made up some of the difference by hiking tuition and increasing the number of out-of-state students, who pay more, but both efforts have sparked opposition.