Students at Mason's 2018 Spring Commencement. Photo by Ron Aira.
George Mason University made a significant jump in the annual Center for World University Rankings (CWUR), which lists its top 1,000 institutions worldwide.
Mason is ranked 322nd worldwide, a jump of 82 positions from last year, and 109th in the United States, a jump of 22 spots. See all the rankings here.
“Talk about moving the needle,” Mason Provost S. David Wu said. “These are fairly significant jumps and a reflection of the quality of our faculty and our students, which in many ways is the secret to our success.”
CWUR uses seven indicators to compile its rankings and does not, its website says, rely on surveys or university data submissions.
The evaluation looks at:
- Quality of education, measured by the number of a university's alumni who have won major international awards, prizes, and medals relative to the university's size.
- Alumni employment, measured by the number of a university's alumni who have held CEO positions at the world's top companies relative to the university's size.
- Quality of faculty, measured by the number of academics who have won major international awards, prizes and medals.
- Research output, measured by the total number of research papers during the past 10 years.
- Quality publications, measured by the number of research papers appearing in top-tier journals.
- Influence, measured by the number of research papers appearing in highly influential journals
- Citations, measured by the number of highly cited research papers.
Mason’s largest jumps came in quality of faculty (85th, up from 101) and influence (357, up from 372).
“Our location in the National Capital region gives us a unique advantage of being able to have access to a tremendous talent pool and being able to attract people who want to be close to that,” Wu said. “These are all ways to maximize our intellectual impact. The ranking are a reflection of that.”