University of Iowa, Iowa State see big drops in U.S. News global rankings (2024)

IOWA CITY — Both the University of Iowa and Iowa State University lost meaningful ground in the U.S. News & World Report’s 2024-2025 “Best Global Universities Rankings” — out Tuesday — with a 45-spot slide for UI and an 81-position drop for ISU.

Where UI ranked No. 180 out of 2,000 universities across 95 countries in the 2022-23 global rankings — the most recent international rankings published — it ranked No. 225 in rankings released today, out of an expanded 2,250 campuses across 104 countries.

That puts it well below the rankings of all 10 peer campuses the Board of Regents has chose to compare and contrast.

ISU dropped from No. 263 in the last ranking to No. 344 in the new one — putting it in the middle of its regents’ peer pack.

The University of Northern Iowa was not ranked either year.

Looking back five years, the UI is 72 spots lower than its No. 153 ranking in 2018. ISU is down 140 positions from its No. 204 placement in 2018.

“Their global rankings are very different from the U.S. rankings most people are familiar with,” UI spokesman Steve Schmadeke told The Gazette on Monday — noting 25 percent of a campus’ score in the global comparison is based on reputation surveys conducted through an outside company.

“Because the global rankings focus on such a narrow scope (one that does not consider student access, success or outcomes)and have such opaque criteria, the university does not place a high emphasis on them,” he said.

U.S. News promotes its 10th edition of the international rankings — based “entirely on academic research and global and regional reputation” — as a guide for a growing number of students exploring higher education beyond their borders. The U.S. State Department in November verified that increase with a report showing international enrollment in American colleges and universities has roared back to pre-pandemic levels seen before the pandemic struck — up 12 percent in the 2022-23 academic year.

The resurgence, though, hasn’t materialized for Iowa’s public universities.

Where the UI a decade ago in 2014 reported 2,430 undergraduate international students, it had 350 in the most recent fall of 2023. That has shrunk its undergraduate percent of international students from 11 percent in 2014 to 1.6 percent in 2023.

ISU has seen its undergraduate international count drop from 2,216 in 2014 to 875 in fall 2023. And UNI is reporting an undergraduate international enrollment slip from 487 in 2014 to 103 in 2023.

At the graduate level, international numbers are more promising — with a UI count of 1,116 in 2023, on par with its 1,188 tally a decade ago. Where ISU a decade ago had 1,790 international graduate students in 2014, it had 1,835 in 2023. And UNI’s international graduate count sits at 72 from 139 in 2014.

Enrollment, according to Schmadeke, is “not a factor in the global rankings.”

The UI’s International Programs Dean Russell Ganim said total international enrollment — including graduate and professional students — is starting to tick up. He said drops at the undergraduate level can be expected, given China is sending fewer students abroad.

“What we are seeing, however, is that Iowa is attracting more international students from a larger and more diverse set of countries,” he said. “As a result, we are intensifying our recruitment efforts in the Middle East, Sub Saharan Africa and South and Southeast Asia, since we believe more students from these regions will eventually come to Iowa.”

‘Can’t be compared’

Regarding the U.S. News global rankings, Schmadeke stressed the vast difference between them and the more commonly cited national rankings — which use U.S. News-collected data on things including admissions test scores, graduation rates, retention rates, class sizes and financial resources.

“Thesetypes of dataare not part of the Best Global Universities rankingsbecause such student- and school-specific data can't be compared internationally,” according to guidance from U.S. News. “Data that measures aspects of the undergraduateand graduateexperience either isnot available because thecountries don't have entrance exams similar to the SAT,ACT, LSAT, GMAT, GRE and MCAT used in the U.S.,or the data is not available in a uniform waythat could be used to make international comparisons.”

A methodology breakdown shows 25 percent of the global rankings is based on reputational surveys; 65 percent on factors related to publications, citations and conferences; and 10 percent related to “international collaboration.”

Although U.S. News didn’t report changes in its methodology for the global rankings this year, it did report changes in the number of campuses it ranked, the countries it involved and specific subject areas it assessed.

Across the 2,000-plus universities in 100-plus countries, China tallied the most ranked universities at 396, followed by the United States at 283 and then Japan at 112.

The United States has the most ranked in the top 10 — with seven — including the top three: Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford University. The United Kingdom had the other three in the top 10, including No. 4-ranked Oxford University and the No. 6-ranked University of Cambridge.

UI, ISU peers

Although many of the United States’ top globally-ranked universities are private institutions, six in the top 21 are public — like UI and ISU. The University of California-Berkeley at No. 4 and the University of Washington at No. 7 are the only public campuses to make the top 10.

The only Big Ten university and UI peer in the top 21 globally was the University of Michigan at No. 19. The UI ranked below all the 10 peer universities assigned to it by regents — with six ranked in the top 100 and all 10 peers ranked in the top 150.

ISU in the global rankings was in the middle of its regent-assigned peer pack — with five ranked better and five ranked lower.

Vanessa Miller covers higher education for The Gazette.

Comments: (319) 339-3158; vanessa.miller@thegazette.com