Washington, D.C. – Oct. 6, 2015 – U.S. News & World Report, publisher of Best Colleges for more than 30 years, today released the 2016 edition of the Best Global Universities. The rankings help students evaluate higher education options worldwide as well as by region, country and subject. U.S. universities remain the global leaders among research institutions, with Harvard University claiming No. 1, followed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology at No. 2, the University of California—Berkeley at No. 3 and Stanford University at No. 4. U.K. universities take the next top spots with the University of Oxford at No. 5, followed by the University of Cambridge at No. 6.

The following countries have the most ranked institutions out of 750 schools on the overall Best Global Universities list:

United States: 181

China: 57

United Kingdom: 55

Germany: 50

Italy: 38

"Students are increasingly looking outside their own countries for educational opportunities," said Anita Narayan, managing editor of Education at U.S. News. "As international education continues to evolve, U.S. News will be at the forefront of the conversation – providing comparable information across global institutions and presenting it in bite-sized pieces for students and their families, just as we have done for three decades in the U.S."

The second edition of the Best Global Universities rankings are more comprehensive, including rankings of the top 750 universities – up from 500 last year – spread out across 57 countries. U.S. News has published new university rankings of larger countries including India and Brazil, and smaller countries such as Belgium, bringing the total number of country-specific rankings up to 32. The 2016 edition also debuts a regional ranking for Africa, adding to the previous four regional rankings, and features a new subject ranking for arts and humanities, bringing up the total to 22 subject rankings.

These countries, listed in rank order, performed best in the following subject rankings:

Arts and humanities: U.S., U.K., Netherlands (tie), Australia (tie), Germany

Clinical medicine: U.S., Germany, U.K., Italy, Canada

Computer science: U.S., China, U.K., Canada (tie), Hong Kong (tie), Australia (tie)

Economics and business: U.S., U.K., Canada (tie), Netherlands (tie), Australia (tie)

Engineering: U.S., China, U.K., Canada, Australia

The Best Global Universities methodology – which is based on data and metrics provided by Thomson Reuters InCitesTM research analytics solutions – weighs factors that measure a university’s global and regional reputation; academic research performance using bibliometric indicators; and school-level data on faculty and Ph.D. graduates. Each subject ranking has its own, similar methodology.

"We have designed the rankings to be a starting point to help students and their families identify institutions that speak to their specific needs, whether they are planning on staying close to home or traveling abroad for college – or whether they are seeking a specific academic degree," said Robert Morse, chief data strategist at U.S. News.

U.S. News 2016 Best Global Universities Rankings

Harvard University (U.S.) Massachusetts Institute of Technology (U.S.) University of California—Berkeley (U.S.) Stanford University (U.S.) University of Oxford (U.K.) University of Cambridge (U.K.) California Institute of Technology (U.S.) University of California—Los Angeles (U.S.) Columbia University (U.S.) University of Chicago (U.S.)

University of Cape Town (South Africa) University of Witwatersrand (South Africa) Stellenbosch University (South Africa) University of KwaZulu-Natal (South Africa) Cairo University (Egypt)

University of Tokyo (Japan) Peking University (China) National University of Singapore Tsinghua University (China) University of Hong Kong

University of Melbourne (Australia) University of Sydney University of Queensland Australia Australian National University Monash University (Australia)

University of Oxford (U.K.) University of Cambridge (U.K.) Imperial College London University College London Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (Switzerland)

Universidade de São Paulo (Brazil) Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) Universidade Estadual de Campinas (Brazil) University of Buenos Aires (Argentina) National Autonomous University of Mexico

Media Contact: Sophia Sherry, ssherry@usnews.com, (U.S.) +1-202-955-2031

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