Year in Review: ASU ranks in the top 100 most prestigious universities worldwide

Editor's note: This story is being highlighted in ASU Now's year in review. To read more top stories from 2016, click here.

Arizona State University has been recognized as one of the top 100 most prestigious universities in the world by Times Higher Education, the world’s largest invitation-only academic opinion survey.

THE World Reputation Rankings 2016, released May 4, are based on a survey of more than 10,000 scholars from 133 countries.

Top academics ranked ASU as being in the 91-100 cohort, along with the likes of such esteemed universities as Pantheon-Sorbonne University, in Paris, the University of Sao Paulo, in Brazil, and the University of Colorado Boulder.

Universities ranked between 51 and 100 are placed in groups of ten. These survey results are among several elements that will contribute to an overall ranking released later this year.

ASU was one of 43 U.S. universities to make the list, and the only university from Arizona. Each academic surveyed named up to 15 universities that they believe are the best for research and teaching in their respective disciplines.

Though the rankings are based entirely on opinions of highly-regarded academics, THE says those opinions are rooted in unique insight that those researchers are well suited to provide. Respondents provided about 400,000 individual data points on how universities around the world are perceived by their peers in each discipline.

Times Higher Education emphasized that a strong reputation is key to attracting funding, business investment and partnerships, and “perhaps most importantly of all, it is essential for drawing in top global talent – staff and students alike.”

ASU’s profile on THE’s website notes ASU’s ranking as the nation’s most innovative university and highlights the numerous prestigious faculty at ASU, including Nobel laureates, Guggenheim Fellows, and Pulitzer Prize winners.