UArizona Gets Top Marks for Space Sciences Research

Recent rankings by U.S. News & World Report and the National Science Foundation (NSF) once again recognize UArizona as one of the world's top research institutions.

UArizona ranked 108 out of 2,000 higher education institutions across 95 countries in the 2023 by U.S. News & World Report Best Global Universities ranking, released on Oct. 24. The university was No. 44 among universities in the U.S. and No. 23 among public universities. UArizona again earned its best placement in the space science category, placing No. 10 overall, No. 6 (up from No. 7 last year) in the U.S. and No. 2 among public universities. The university earned top marks for its research reputation in space sciences, along with the number of citations and publications by UArizona researchers.

U.S. News & World Report's Best Global Universities ranks colleges and universities in 47 separate subjects. UArizona earned a spot on 34 of the subject ranking lists. The university's overall research reputation ranked No. 49 in the U.S. and No. 94 globally. To produce the global rankings, U.S. News & World Report uses a methodology that focuses on a university's global and regional reputation and academic research performance using indicators such as citations and publications. U.S. News uses a separate methodology for the subject-specific rankings that is based on academic research performance in each subject. U.S. News uses various measures, including publications and citations, as well as indicators for global and regional reputation in each specific subject area.

On Dec. 13, the NSF Higher Education Research and Development (HERD) survey again ranked UArizona among the nation's top public research universities, with $770 million in total research activity in fiscal year 2021. The HERD survey annually ranks more than 900 colleges and universities and is considered the primary source of information on research and development expenditures at U.S. colleges and universities. UArizona also retained its No. 1 ranking in astronomy and astrophysics (including planetary science) expenditures at more than $113 million – more than $40 million ahead of the No. 2-ranked university.

UArizona saw an increase of more than $9 million over its fiscal year 2020 total. Research and development expenditures rank No. 20 among public institutions and No. 36 overall, placing UArizona in the top 4% of all U.S. universities ranked in this list, both public and private. UArizona ranked No. 5 in NASA-funded activity and No. 6 in the physical sciences.

UArizona has held the No. 1 ranking in astronomy/astrophysics and planetary science expenditures each year since 1987.