Analysis: Global Universities That Outperform Their Reputations

For the first time, U.S. News is publishing an analysis of universities from our Best Global Universities rankings that are overperforming or underperforming their global research reputation.

This analysis of the rankings, which are powered by Thomson Reuters InCites^TM research analytics solutions, measures the degree to which a university's position among the top 500 global universities exceeds or falls short of its global research reputation rank.

The global research reputation rank is based on the results of Thomson Reuters' Academic Reputation Survey, which asks academics around the world to rate the universities with which they are familiar.

If a university is ranked higher in the overall top 500 global rankings than in its global research reputation -- or overperforming its reputation -- it means that the school is doing relatively well in the other key research performance indicators used in the ranking methodology, which include publications, total citations and international collaboration.

It also means that the university's reputation among its academic peers around the world is lagging well behind the global position the school has achieved in its research performance. In other words, a university's global research reputation doesn't yet reflect how relatively well the school is doing in the other research impact factors used in the rankings.

On the other hand, if a university's global research reputation ranking is far higher than its overall global ranking -- or underperforming its reputation -- it means that the school's performance in the key research indicators used by U.S. News is not keeping pace with its global research reputation.

This could mean that the university's overall reputation for research is benefiting from a much higher reputation held by its individual programs. Or, it could mean that the school's global research reputation has yet to fully reflect the school's current lower rating in the research performance indicators.

The U.S. had the largest number of overperforming universities, with nine schools. In second place was China with six schools, and Italy came in third with five schools. The Université de Savoie in France was the world's largest overperformer. Its overall rank of 352 surpassed its global research reputation rank of 728 by 376 places.

India, Turkey and the United Kingdom had the largest number of underperforming universities, with three each. The London School of Economics and Political Science in the United Kingdom was the world's largest underperformer, with its overall rank of 328 falling far below its global research reputation rank of 25.

The U.S. News methodology for the Best Global Universities rankings gives the global research reputation score a weight of 12.5 percent in the overall ranking model. Global research reputations are subjective, but they are also important because a diploma from a distinguished university can help graduates get good jobs or gain admission to top-notch graduate programs.

Only schools that were numerically ranked in the top 500 Best Global Universities rankings were included in this analysis.

Overperformers

The table below lists the top 25 overperforming schools in our Best Global Universities rankings. These schools' overall numerical ranks among the top 500 Best Global Universities were better than their global research reputation ranks by the largest number of ranking places.

Underperformers

This table shows the top 25 underperforming schools in our Best Global Universities rankings. These schools' overall numerical ranks among the top 500 Best Global Universities were lower than their global research reputation ranks by the largest number of ranking places.