The University of Arizona has been recognized as one of the world's top higher education institutions in a pair of prestigious global rankings.

UArizona placed No. 89 out of 20,000 global colleges and universities in the annual Center for World University Rankings, released Monday. The university ranked No. 48 among U.S. institutions and No. 27 among public colleges and universities.

CWUR uses the following indicators to rank the world's universities:

• Quality of education, measured by the number of a university's alumni who have won major academic distinctions relative to the university's size (25%)
• Alumni employment, measured by the number of a university's alumni who have held top executive positions at the world's largest companies relative to the university's size (25%)
• Quality of faculty, measured by the number of faculty members who have won major academic distinctions (10%)
• Research performance:
  • Research output, measured by the total number of research articles (10%)
  • High-quality publications, measured by the number of research articles appearing in top-tier journals (10%)
  • Influence, measured by the number of research articles appearing in highly-influential journals (10%)
  • Citations, measured by the number of highly-cited research articles (10%)

UArizona's best rankings came in CWUR's quality of faculty (No. 70) and research performance (No. 101) indicators.

UArizona also secured a spot in the annual QS World University Rankings, tied for No. 273 among 1,002 published institutions. QS considered more than 1,600 colleges and universities for its ranking, released Wednesday. UArizona placed No. 57 among U.S. institutions and No. 29 among public universities.

QS uses the following indicators to rank the world's universities:

• Academic reputation (40%)
• Student/faculty ratio (20%)
• Citations per faculty (20%)
• Employer reputation (10%)
• International faculty (5%)
• International students (5%)

UArizona's best ranking came in the academic reputation category (No. 199), while the university's 111-spot increase in the student/faculty ratio category represents its biggest improvement.

In May, UArizona appeared in QS's first ranking of U.S. colleges and universities, tying for No. 68 overall and No. 29 among public colleges and universities.