UCR has garnered 72^nd place in life sciences and 85^th in physical sciences, in the 2013-14 London Times Higher Education World University Rankings of research universities around the globe. Released October 2, the annual study evaluates “world-class universities across all of their core missions—teaching, research, knowledge transfer, and international outlook,” according to its website, www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/world-university-rankings.

The rankings used 13 performance indicators grouped into 5 areas:

• Teaching: the learning environment (worth 30 per cent of the overall ranking score)
• Research: volume, income and reputation (worth 30 per cent)
• Citations: research influence (worth 30 per cent)
• Industry income: innovation (worth 2.5 per cent)
• International outlook: staff, students and research (worth 7.5 per cent).

In the life sciences subject area, UCR’s 72^nd place surpasses such prominent American universities as the University of Illinois (73^rd), Purdue (87^th), and Stony Brook (97^th) in addition to many foreign institutions. Garnering the top 5 spots in life sciences are (in order) Harvard , MIT , Oxford, Cambridge, and Stanford.

In physical sciences, UCR was ranked 85^th, ahead of Notre Dame, UC Davis, and Texas A&M, which were tied for 91^st. Top spots in this category were Cal Tech (1^st), MIT/Princeton (tied for 2^nd), Harvard (4^th), and UC Berkeley/Stanford (tied for 5th).