The University of Arizona has been ranked No. 1 in the U.S. and No. 2 globally in the area of water resources in the 2020 Academic Ranking of World Universities by academic subjects, which was released June 28.

"I am thrilled to see the groundbreaking sustainability and climate resilience research conducted by University of Arizona scientists is honored once again with this ranking," said University of Arizona President Robert C. Robbins. "This marks three years in a row where our leadership in water resources has been recognized. Our impact in this vitally important area will shape our world for generations to come."

UArizona earned the No. 1 overall spot in water resources in 2019 and 2018. The university's total score in water resources (294.9) increased by 6.5 points over last year's mark of 288.4. The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich finished No. 1 globally in the 2020 ranking, with UArizona coming in ahead of Beijing Normal University, Texas A&M and the University of New South Wales. UArizona has never finished lower than No. 3 overall since Shanghai started ranking water resources in 2017.

"With water management among the most pressing issues in Arizona and throughout the region, the University of Arizona has leveraged its natural surroundings with top-notch faculty across a variety of colleges and departments to generate influence in water studies that goes well beyond the Southwest to benefit arid and semi-arid regions around the world," said Elizabeth "Besty" Cantwell, senior vice president for research and innovation.

The Shanghai ARWU subject rankings score more than 4,000 global universities across 54 subjects in five categories (natural sciences, engineering, life sciences, medical sciences and social sciences) based on the number of papers authored by an institution in an academic subject, the ratio of citation of papers published to the average citations of papers in the same category, the number of papers published in top journals, the amount of international collaboration and the total number of staff members that have won significant awards.

UArizona also earned high marks in the areas of communication (No. 20 globally, No. 15 in the U.S.) and in library and information sciences (No. 21 and No. 16).

In other subject areas, UArizona appeared in the top 50 in ecology (No. 27 and No. 9), atmospheric sciences (No. 30 and No. 19), earth sciences (No. 31 and No. 14), public administration (No. 41 and No. 17), law (No. 44 and No. 38), business administration (No. 46 and No. 32) and geography (No. 49 and No. 11).

The ARWU's institutional ranking was first published in June 2003 by the Center for World-Class Universities, Graduate School of Education (formerly the Institute of Higher Education) of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China, and has been updated on an annual basis. Since 2009, the ARWU has been published and copyrighted by ShanghaiRanking Consultancy.