Iowa’s top research universities have continued sliding in the U.S. News & World Report’s new 2022 “Best Global Universities” ranking — a slope echoing international enrollment losses across Iowa and the nation.
The University of Iowa ranked No. 153 in the world in the 2018 U.S. News report. But the campus has been slipping annually, reaching No. 160 last year before dropping 14 places to No. 174 in the 2022 report made public today.
Iowa State University — which ranked No. 204 in the 2018 report -- likewise has been dropping annually to No. 212, No. 220 and then No. 231 last year — and now to No. 237 in the new report.
The 2022 report comes about a month after the UI made gains in the domestic version of the U.S. News rankings — jumping five spots from No. 88 to No. 83 among all universities nationally and inching up one spot from No. 34 to No. 33 among only public U.S. universities.
The University of Northern Iowa — which did not make the global ranking of 1,750 top institutions — also made gains in last month’s new U.S. News regional rankings, from No. 24 to No. 19. ISU — like its placement in the global rankings — slipped nationally, from No. 118 to No. 122 nationally and from No. 54 to No. 58 among just public universities.
The new global rankings — now in their eighth iteration — are calculated using 13 indicators heavily focused on research. The most weight — at 25 percent — is given to global and regional research reputations. Another quarter of the ranking is based on an institution’s production of publications, books, conferences and “citation impact.” Nearly a quarter is determined by number of citations and total publications “that are among the 10 percent most cited.” Less weight is given for number of citations and publications making it into the exclusive “top 1 percent most highly cited.”
This year’s global ranking of 1,750 institutions from 91 countries is up from last year’s nearly 1,500 spanning 86 countries.
Although the United States held is position as the top-performing country — with 271 universities, or 16 percent of the ranked schools — it slipped in that percentage slightly from last year’s 17 percent.
China, which historically has accounted for the biggest share of international students at Iowa’s public universities, is gaining on the United States in the U.S. News global rankings, accounting for 253 of the world’s top institutions, or 15 percent of the total.
A drop in students from China, with its growing number of high-quality higher education options, has contributed to international student losses across Iowa’s public universities.
Whereas the UI reported a peak of 4,540 international students in 2015 — including 2,797 from China — its international enrollment this fall is down to 1,890 total, including just 664 from China.
COVID-19 and the travel challenges it created likely contributed to that decline — not just in Iowa, but nationally.
The National Student Clearinghouse also today publicly released new fall postsecondary enrollment data revealing pandemic losses persist — including on the international front.
International enrollment nationally is down 8.2 percent this fall from last, on top of international enrollment being down 14 percent from the year prior.
“They’re now over 20 percent lower than they were two years ago,” Doug Shapiro, executive director of the clearinghouse research center, said Monday during a media briefing. “I think that's not surprising. International travel is still very challenging for students from many, many countries. So we didn't expect to see any increase there.
“But to see a further 8 percent decline on top of last year's 14 percent has got to be of great concern to many institutions that enroll large numbers of international students.”
Although China is gaining on the United States in total top-tier universities, the United States still boasts eight of the world’s top universities — with Harvard University, Massachusetts Institution of Technology, Stanford University and the University of California-Berkeley leading the pack. The United Kingdom’s universities of Oxford and Cambridge also made the Top 10.
China’s first university on the list is Tsinghua University at No. 26. The first Big Ten campus on the global list is the University of Michigan at No. 19.
Besides ranking the top institutions overall, U.S. News ranked the campuses by program — revealing a mix of losses and gains for the UI and ISU.
Both campuses lost ground in biology and biochemistry and also in chemistry, where ISU fell from No. 235 to No. 258 and the UI tumbled from No. 483 to No. 557. The UI lost ground in neuroscience and behavior, pharmacology and toxicology and physics, where ISU also slipped from No. 159 to No. 172.
But both saw gains in the geosciences, where the UI improved from No. 139 to No. 136 and ISU ranked No. 349 — after not being ranked at all last year.
The UI made other gains in immunology and oncology, for example. ISU improved in subjects including environmental ecology, materials sciences, microbiology and molecular genetics.
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The University of Iowa ranked No. 153 in the world in the 2018 U.S. News report. But the campus has been slipping annually, reaching No. 160 last year before dropping 14 places to No. 174 in the 2022 report made public today.
Iowa State University — which ranked No. 204 in the 2018 report -- likewise has been dropping annually to No. 212, No. 220 and then No. 231 last year — and now to No. 237 in the new report.
The 2022 report comes about a month after the UI made gains in the domestic version of the U.S. News rankings — jumping five spots from No. 88 to No. 83 among all universities nationally and inching up one spot from No. 34 to No. 33 among only public U.S. universities.
The University of Northern Iowa — which did not make the global ranking of 1,750 top institutions — also made gains in last month’s new U.S. News regional rankings, from No. 24 to No. 19. ISU — like its placement in the global rankings — slipped nationally, from No. 118 to No. 122 nationally and from No. 54 to No. 58 among just public universities.
The new global rankings — now in their eighth iteration — are calculated using 13 indicators heavily focused on research. The most weight — at 25 percent — is given to global and regional research reputations. Another quarter of the ranking is based on an institution’s production of publications, books, conferences and “citation impact.” Nearly a quarter is determined by number of citations and total publications “that are among the 10 percent most cited.” Less weight is given for number of citations and publications making it into the exclusive “top 1 percent most highly cited.”
This year’s global ranking of 1,750 institutions from 91 countries is up from last year’s nearly 1,500 spanning 86 countries.
International enrollment
Although the United States held is position as the top-performing country — with 271 universities, or 16 percent of the ranked schools — it slipped in that percentage slightly from last year’s 17 percent.
China, which historically has accounted for the biggest share of international students at Iowa’s public universities, is gaining on the United States in the U.S. News global rankings, accounting for 253 of the world’s top institutions, or 15 percent of the total.
A drop in students from China, with its growing number of high-quality higher education options, has contributed to international student losses across Iowa’s public universities.
Whereas the UI reported a peak of 4,540 international students in 2015 — including 2,797 from China — its international enrollment this fall is down to 1,890 total, including just 664 from China.
COVID-19 and the travel challenges it created likely contributed to that decline — not just in Iowa, but nationally.
The National Student Clearinghouse also today publicly released new fall postsecondary enrollment data revealing pandemic losses persist — including on the international front.
International enrollment nationally is down 8.2 percent this fall from last, on top of international enrollment being down 14 percent from the year prior.
“They’re now over 20 percent lower than they were two years ago,” Doug Shapiro, executive director of the clearinghouse research center, said Monday during a media briefing. “I think that's not surprising. International travel is still very challenging for students from many, many countries. So we didn't expect to see any increase there.
“But to see a further 8 percent decline on top of last year's 14 percent has got to be of great concern to many institutions that enroll large numbers of international students.”
Program losses, gains
Although China is gaining on the United States in total top-tier universities, the United States still boasts eight of the world’s top universities — with Harvard University, Massachusetts Institution of Technology, Stanford University and the University of California-Berkeley leading the pack. The United Kingdom’s universities of Oxford and Cambridge also made the Top 10.
China’s first university on the list is Tsinghua University at No. 26. The first Big Ten campus on the global list is the University of Michigan at No. 19.
Besides ranking the top institutions overall, U.S. News ranked the campuses by program — revealing a mix of losses and gains for the UI and ISU.
Both campuses lost ground in biology and biochemistry and also in chemistry, where ISU fell from No. 235 to No. 258 and the UI tumbled from No. 483 to No. 557. The UI lost ground in neuroscience and behavior, pharmacology and toxicology and physics, where ISU also slipped from No. 159 to No. 172.
But both saw gains in the geosciences, where the UI improved from No. 139 to No. 136 and ISU ranked No. 349 — after not being ranked at all last year.
The UI made other gains in immunology and oncology, for example. ISU improved in subjects including environmental ecology, materials sciences, microbiology and molecular genetics.
Iowa, Iowa State lose ground in global rankings
Iowa’s top research universities have continued their slide in the U.S. News & World Report’s new 2022 “Best Global Universities” ranking — a slope running parallel to international enrollment losses across Iowa and the nation.
www.thegazette.com
