Kent State Rated One of the World’s Top Universities for Second Straight Year by Times Higher Education of London

For the second consecutive year, Times Higher Education, a London-based higher education magazine, has ranked Kent State University as one of world’s top universities in its annual World University Rankings. The respected performance rankings were released today.

Kent State was the only public research university in Northeast Ohio to be awarded the honor and one of only four public and private schools in the state of Ohio to make the list, along with Case Western Reserve University, The Ohio State University and the University of Cincinnati. Kent State ranked in the 301-350 range globally and is among the 113 American universities represented on the international list.

The 2011-12 World University Rankings is considered “the gold standard” for world-class research institutions by Times Higher Education. The Times Higher Education tables, using data from Thomson Reuters, are widely recognized as the most authoritative source of broad comparative performance information on universities across the world.

Kent State President Lester A. Lefton said the world ranking is yet another validation of the broad-based success the university is experiencing. “Kent State is truly a world-class institution of higher education that is preparing students for the demands of the 21st century,” Lefton said. “We are proud to receive this prestigious ranking two years in a row.

“The faculty and staff of Kent State University are dedicated to continued excellence in education, research and student success,” Lefton continued. “As Kent State continues to broaden its international reach, rankings of this type demonstrate our success on the global stage.”

The news from Times Higher Education comes on the heels of two other prestigious rankings for the university. Kent State received a coveted spot in the first-tier list of Best National Universities in the 2012 edition of Best Colleges by U.S. News & World Report, and was recently ranked among the top 500 universities according to the 2011 Academic Ranking of World Universities.

For the eighth annual list, the 2011-12 World University Rankings used a sophisticated methodology first introduced last year. However, Times Higher Education has continued to refine the process and made a number of improvements for this year, resulting in the most detailed, rigorous and comprehensive study of global university performance ever taken. This year’s list includes the top 400 universities in the world.

“We employed 13 separate performance indicators, across the full range of a university’s core activity,” said Ann Mroz, editor of Times Higher Education. “These allowed us to take a serious look at the teaching environment for the first time, as well as to examine research, knowledge transfer and internationalization in depth. We also reduced our reliance on subjective measures.”

The global rankings are built on performance indicators designed to capture the full range of university activities, from teaching to research to knowledge transfer. The 13 indicators are brought together into five broad categories, which are: teaching, citations (measuring research influence), research (measured in volume, income and reputation), international outlook (measured in staff, students and research) and industry income (measured in innovation).

For more information on the 2011-12 World University Rankings and to see the complete list of the top universities in the world, visit www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/world-university-rankings.

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Media Contact:
Emily Vincent, evincen2@kent.edu, 330-672-8595