Newswise — The University of California San Diego has been ranked the 17th best university in the world, up four spots compared to last year, by the Center for World University Rankings (CWUR). The fifth-annual global rankings measure universities’ quality of research, faculty, influence, enterprise and successful alumni.

CWUR also listed UC San Diego the third best public university in the U.S. and overall, the 14th best in the nation. In the category of "influence," which measures the number of research papers appearing in highly-influential journals, UC San Diego was ranked the 5th best in the world.

“It is an honor to once again be recognized as one of the world’s most prestigious and influential universities,” said UC San Diego Chancellor Pradeep K. Khosla. “UC San Diego’s faculty, students and scholars challenge conventional thinking and expectations in the pursuit of excellence, an inherent trait of the university since our founding in 1960.”

The methodology for the CWUR’s 2016 rankings analyzed the world’s top 1,000 universities, measuring eight indicators designed to best assess universities’ quality of education and training of students as well as the prestige of the faculty members and the quality of their research. The rankings do not rely on opinion-based surveys, but rather they take a quantitative approach by measuring the following:1. Quality of Education, measured by the number of alumni who have won major international awards, prizes and medals relative to the university’s size.2. Alumni Employment, measured by the number of alumni who have held CEO positions at the world’s top companies relative to the university’s size.3. Quality of Faculty, measured by the number of academics who have won major international awards, prizes and medals.4. Publications, measured by the number of research papers appearing in reputable journals.5. Influence, measured by the number of research papers appearing in highly-influential journals.6. Citations, measured by the number of highly-cited research papers.7. Broad Impact, measured by both the productivity and the impact of published work.8. Patents, measured by the number of international patent filings.

Universities are ranked in each of these categories and their combined totals equate to the individual college’s overall global ranking. UC San Diego earns high marks in the categories of influence (5th), broad impact (16th), citations (16th), publications (16th), patents (16th) and quality of faculty (18th).

The complete list of CWUR’s top 100 universities in the world can be found here.