The University of Arizona is one of the world's top higher education institutions, according to a major international ranking.

UArizona is ranked No. 93 out of nearly 20,000 global colleges and universities in the annual Center for World University Rankings, released Monday. UArizona also ranked No. 49 among U.S. institutions and No. 27 among public colleges and universities. The ranking places UArizona among the top 0.47% of universities worldwide. The number of faculty members who have won major academic distinctions contributed to the university's strong showing.

"At the University of Arizona, we take pride in our ability to provide an environment for top-tier educators and researchers to generate cutting-edge discoveries while training the next generation of paradigm-shifting thinkers," said University of Arizona President Robert C. Robbins. "We are grateful to see these efforts recognized by the Center for World University Rankings."

CWUR uses the following indicators to rank the world's universities. The percentages indicate the weight given to each indicator:

• Quality of education, measured by the number of alumni who have won major academic distinctions relative to the university's size (25% of the overall ranking).
• Employability, measured by the number of 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 influential journals (10%).
  • Citations, measured by the number of highly cited research articles (10%).

UArizona's overall score (82.1 out of 100) was bolstered by its global quality of faculty ranking (No. 73) and research performance ranking (No. 107).

CWUR places equal emphasis on student-related and faculty-related indicators, with no reliance on surveys and university data submissions.