Skip to content Accessibility statement

York in world top ten of younger universities

Posted on 31 May 2012

The University of York has today been ranked eighth in the world and number one in the UK in new Times Higher Education world rankings of universities less than 50 years old.

The University is among institutions from six nations that feature in the world’s top 10 reaffirming York’s international reputation for excellence in research, teaching, knowledge transfer and global outlook. This latest accolade, coinciding with the University’s recent invitation to join the Russell Group, confirms the University’s enormous impact in teaching, research and engagement in less than 50 years.

In just 49 years, York has managed to forge a powerful global reputation as a strong research-led university, and it performs very well against the world’s elite heritage institutions across Times Higher Education’s 13 separate ranking indicators

Phil Baty, Editor of the Times Higher Education Rankings

Since its inception in 1963, the University has achieved a consistent top ranking in the UK and is one of just a few post-war universities to make the World Top 100.

The new rankings relied on the world’s largest academic reputation survey – involving 17,500 academics – and an analysis of 50 million citations. According to the Times Higher Education  the ranking “employed the same sophisticated range of indicators as the prestigious Times Higher Education World University Rankings, with weightings carefully recalibrated to suit the profile of younger universities”.

The rankings used 13 separate performance indicators, covering all core missions of a modern global university – research, teaching, knowledge transfer and international outlook.

The Vice-Chancellor Professor Brian Cantor said: “This is great news. Our success stems from the tremendous hard work, dedication and ability of all our staff and students over many years. Our world-leading position is a reaffirmation of our commitments to excellence and inclusivity throughout our teaching, research and knowledge transfer activities. 

“This new accolade for the University is due in no small measure to the opinions of our peers, and it is doubly satisfying to know that our strengths are being increasingly recognised worldwide.”

Phil Baty, the Editor of the Times Higher Education Rankings, said: “The vast majority of the world’s best research-led universities share a core element in common: they are old. The likes of Oxford and Harvard have developed over several centuries, drawing on many years of endowment income and deep and enduring networks of alumni ambassadors. The Times Higher Education 100 Under 50 is about an exciting new generation of institutions. It highlights both the younger institutions that show great future potential and those who have already managed to join the world’s research elite in an exceptionally short space of time.

“The University of York, named today as the UK’s number one university under the age of 50, and listed in the world top ten, is clearly in the latter category. In just 49 years, it has managed to forge a powerful global reputation as a strong research-led university, and it performs very well against the world’s elite heritage institutions across Times Higher Education’s 13 separate ranking indicators.”

Notes to editors:

Times Higher Education 100 Under 50 states the following:
  • “50,000,000 citations analysed and compared with the world average from the same field
  • World’s largest academic reputation survey (17,500 academics)
  • Employs same sophisticated range of indicators as the prestigious Times Higher Education World University Rankings, with weightings carefully recalibrated to suit the profile of younger universities
  • 13 separate performance indicators, covering ALL core missions of a modern global university – research, teaching, knowledge transfer and international outlook

    Industry Income - innovation
    3.    Research income from industry / Academic staff

    Teaching – the learning environment
    2.    Reputation survey – Teaching
    3.    Staff-to-student ratio
    4.    PhDs awarded / Undergraduate degrees awarded
    5.    PhDs awarded / Academic staff
    6.    Institutional income / Academic staff

    Citations – research influence
    7.    Citation impact (normalized average citations per paper)

    Research – volume, income and reputation
    8.    Reputation survey – Research
    9.    Research income (PPP) / Academic staff
    10.  Scholarly papers / (Academic staff + Research staff)

    International Outlook – staff, students and research

    11.  International students / Total students
    12.  International academic staff / Total academic staff
    13.  Scholarly papers with one or more international co-authors / Total scholarly papers”

Contact details

David Garner
Senior Press Officer

Tel: +44 (0)1904 322153

Keep up to date

 Subscribe to news feeds

 Follow us on Twitter