UCSF Specialties Among World’s Best in US News Global Universities Rankings for 2018

By Nina Bai

Rebecca Jaszczak works in a lab in the Regeneration Medicine Building on the Parnassus campus
Rebecca Jaszczak, a second-year Biomedical Sciences graduate student works in Diana Laird’s lab in the Regeneration Medicine Building. Photo by Susan Merrell

UC San Francisco has ranked among the best universities in the world in the U.S. News & World Report’s Best Global Universities 2018 rankings.

UCSF ranked in the top 10 for seven health sciences specialty rankings: second for Immunology; third for Clinical Medicine; fourth for Neuroscience & Behavior; fourth for Pharmacology & Toxicology; fifth for Biology & Biochemistry and Molecular Biology & Genetics; and seventh for Microbiology.

UCSF in U.S. News Global Universities Rankings

2nd – Immunology

3rd – Clinical Medicine

4th – Neuroscience and Behavior

4th – Pharmacology and Toxicology

5th – Biology and Biochemistry

5th – Molecular Biology and Genetics

7th – Microbiology

17th – Social Sciences and Public Health

36th – Psychiatry/Psychology

“The U.S. News Global Universities rankings affirm the exceptional quality and caliber of UCSF’s health sciences research,” said Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Daniel Lowenstein, MD. “With their emphasis on measurements of research productivity, including publications and their impact on their fields, they shine the light on the superb work our faculty and students are doing.”

For 2018, UCSF also increased its overall spot ranking to No. 15, which is higher than last year’s No. 16 placement. For the overall rankings, UCSF, which is focused exclusively on health sciences, must compete against other institutions that have a breadth of disciplines. This year, U.S. News & World Report also added 250 additional institutions to the rankings.

The rankings, which focus on schools’ academic research and reputation rather than undergraduate and graduate programs, aim to help an increasing number of international students accurately compare institutions around the world.

Scores for the overall ranking were calculated based on 13 weighted indicators that included the University’s global and regional research reputation, publication record, extent of international collaborations and impact of their citations.

Each subject ranking has its own methodology based on academic research performance and reputation in that specific area.

UCSF’s expertise in research across multiple health-sciences arenas is also reflected in the number of National Institutes of Health awards for its researchers across all of its four schools and its Graduate Division. In 2016, the University was the top public recipient of highly competitive NIH funding – the sixth consecutive year it held that distinction.