UC Chile Continues Rank as the Best Chilean University

The 19th edition of the QS World University Rankings ranked Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (UC Chile) as the best university in Chile. In the 2023 edition, the university has climbed 14 positions and is now 121st in the world. 

According to the prestigious market-leading university ranking, UC Chile is the Chilean institution with the highest international recognition. 

Universidad Católica also continues to stand out in terms of academic reputation and employer reputation. Today it ranks 40th globally in academic reputation and has the highest employer reputation in Latin America, ranking 19th worldwide.

In the world ranking, Universidad de Buenos Aires continues to lead the Latin American institutions, this time in 67th place. 

It is followed by National Autonomous University of Mexico at 104th, University of Sao Paulo at 115th, UC Chile 121st, and Universidad de Chile at 167th.

The results of the recent QS World Ranking clearly reflect the work carried out by the university community and the international recognition of the university, according to President Ignacio Sánchez.

"For the first time we are in such a prominent position worldwide, we climbed from 135th place to 121st. I must highlight the areas of faculty quality and student employability, where we are ranked within the top 40 of the world. This speaks to the quality of our professors and the education of our students, which prepares them for their working, professional and academic lives," he stated.

The authority highlighted how these international evaluations confirm the quality of the university, year after year.

"They show the commitment of all university members, the ability to attract the best students in the country and allow them to develop, to express their talents and creativity, and how we form people who contribute to the development of Chile."

The President also stressed the importance the ranking holds in continuing to support a university system that generates knowledge and research. 

"If the country increases its contribution to research, science and of resources, the result will be greater knowledge and positioning in the indicators that these rankings measure. We have many initiatives in this regard. What we are looking for is the opportunity to apply for competitive funds that favor good projects and ideas, in order to support the creativity of our researchers in a joint work network that incorporates national, international, and regional universities."

24 Chilean universities appear in the world ranking, three of them are in the top 500, where UC leads in 121st place. It is followed by Universidad de Chile in 167th place and Universidad de Santiago in 467th place.

 QS World University Rankings

In terms of methodology, QS prepares its rankings using six indicators:

• The academic reputation and employer reputation indicators are based on the opinion of 150,000 faculty and 99,000 employers. 
• The citations per faculty indicator measures research impact, while the faculty-student ratio is used as an indicator of teaching capacity. 
• The international faculty ratio and international student ratio indicators are used to determine the internationalization of a university. 

This year, QS has also added two new unweighted performance indicators:

• The employment outcomes indicator, which evaluates the employability of students, 
• The international research network indicator, which explores international research collaboration and knowledge transfer.

This edition of the 2023 World University Rankings comprises 1,418 institutions in 100 locations. 

The results take into account the distribution and performance of 16.4 million scholarly articles published between 2016 and 2020 and the 117.8 million citations of those articles. 

They also take into account the expert opinions of more than 151,000 academic faculty and more than 99,000 employers.

Which University Claimed the Top Spot?

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) continues its 11-year dominance as the top university in the world. 

Cambridge University moved up to second place, while Stanford University remained in third place. 

Mainland China has now two universities among the world's top 15, thanks to Peking University (#12) and Tsinghua University (#14), both achieving their best position since the ranking was created. 

The National University of Singapore is the top-ranked Asian university, ranking 11th for the fifth consecutive year. 

Switzerland's ETH Zurich (9) remains the top university in continental Europe, while Universidad de Buenos Aires (UBA) continues to lead the world raking when it comes to Latin American universities.

View the complete ranking.