Times Higher Education - QS World University Rankings released its list of the top universities on Wednesday (Oct. 7), and Purdue University is ranked 87th.
This is a 12-place increase for Purdue, which was ranked 99th in 2008. Purdue tied this year with the University of St. Andrews in the United Kingdom.
"This dramatic rise in rankings reaffirms Purdue's status as a world-class university," said Purdue President France A. Córdova. "Purdue's international reputation continues to grow thanks to our international students and study abroad programs, and well-known researchers who are making a difference, such as professor Gebisa Ejeta, who just won the World Food Prize."
Purdue's engineering and information technology programs also are ranked 37th, while life sciences and biomedicine ranked 79th, and natural sciences ranked 94th. The complete listings are available at http://www.topuniversities.com/
"This world-wide recognition of our academics, scholarship and global impact tells prospective students that Purdue will prepare them to successfully compete and collaborate in a global economy and helps us recruit the very best educators and scholars to the university," said Randy Woodson, Purdue's executive vice president for academic affairs and provost.
The other top 100 Big Ten institutions ranked are University of Michigan at No. 19, University of Wisconsin at No. 61 and University of Illinois at No. 63.
The rankings were based on reviews or data related to peer institutions, employers, students, research performance, and international faculty and students. In total 9,386 academics and 3,281 employers responded to the surveys related to these rankings.
The Times Higher Education, which was founded in 1971, is a weekly magazine of universities from around the world. Top Universities Guide, the official guide to the Times Higher Education-QS World University Rankings, contains advice on selecting, applying and financing higher education.
These rankings also are reported by U.S.News & World Report and will be available at http://www.usnews.com/sections/education/worlds-best-colleges/index.html
In August 2009 U.S.News & World Report ranked Purdue 22nd among the nation's public universities. This was a four-place increase from 26th in 2008. Purdue also was ranked 61st among all universities, and this too was an improvement from 66th in 2008.
In April 2009, the magazine also ranked several of Purdue's graduate programs, including areas in engineering, management, education, liberal arts, science and pharmacy, as among the nation's best.