The 2024 Times Higher Education World University Rankings were released Wednesday, and Virginia Tech has been listed among the world’s top universities.
This particular ranking judges excellence on a global scale. Virginia Tech ranked in the 251-300 range out of 1,904 universities — a 12.7 percent increase in the number of universities participating since 2022. Also, Virginia Tech ranked tied for 17th among public Carnegie Class-Very High Research land-grant universities, which is one of the university’s key performance indicators in its pursuit of becoming a top 100 global school.
The methodology for the ranking, which was updated this year to reflect the outputs of the diverse range of research-intensive universities, considers five core factors:
- Teaching (the learning environment)
- Research environment (volume, income, and reputation)
- Research quality (citation impact, research strength, research excellence, and research influence)
- International outlook (staff, students, and research)
- Industry (income and patents)
Research quality and research environment account for 60 percent of a university’s overall score.
Virginia Tech scored well in research quality and industry. The research quality factor considers a university’s citation impact by capturing the average number of times a university’s published work is cited by scholars globally. The industry factor suggests the extent to which businesses are willing to pay for research and a university’s ability to attract funding in the commercial marketplace — useful indicators of institutional quality.
Virginia Tech scored nearly 80 points on a 100-point scale in both of those core factors.
“Virginia Tech’s performance in these factors shows the quality and impacts of our research in the worldwide marketplace,” said Dan Sui, senior vice president for research and innovation. “The work of our faculty, staff, and students reflects our commitment to Ut Prosim and our resolve to tackle some of the biggest challenges facing humanity today. We’re excited to continue working with Virginia Tech’s global partners to expand our research efforts and amplify the impacts.”
An example of Virginia Tech’s research impact includes the university’s recent pairing with Northrop Grumman to host the CHIPS for Virginia Summit this summer in which leaders from industry, higher education and government focused on the needs for semiconductors along with supply chain demands, national security initiatives, and workforce development. Another example is Virginia Tech and Amazon partnering to advance research and innovation in artificial intelligence and machine learning.
Virginia Tech’s showing in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings occurred four months following its showing in Times Higher Education’s Impact Rankings, which assesses universities against the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals in research, teaching, outreach, and stewardship. The university, which received an overall ranking of No. 92 in the Impact Rankings, has chosen these two Times Higher Education rankings as proxies to assess strategic progress related to the Virginia Tech’s land-grant mission.
