Getting your
Trinity Audioplayer ready...Stanford University and UC Berkeley again ranked among the top 10 universities in the world in a new U.S. News & World Report list — a familiar showing for two Bay Area research powerhouses, but one that comes as California universities warn that federal funding cuts could threaten the scientific work such rankings are built to measure.
The outlet’s 12th annual report on the best global universities listed Stanford University as third and the University of California at Berkeley as seventh out of the world’s top 2,250 universities.
Stanford University held onto the third spot for the third straight year, continuing from its rankings in 2024 and 2025. slipped one spot from 2025, when it ranked sixth, and two spots from 2024, when it ranked fifth. Harvard University ranked as the world’s top university for at least the third year in a row.
Unlike the outlet’s annual “Best Colleges” list, which is released annually in September and uses undergraduate-focused metrics like bachelor’s degree graduation rates, the global list is more research-oriented. It evaluates universities based on academic research, publications, citations, international collaboration and global and regional research reputation.
That makes the ranking especially relevant as Stanford, UC Berkeley and other major California research institutions face uncertainty over federal funding that has long helped support scientific research at universities across the state.
In the last year, the Trump administration has slashed more than $3 billion in research funding to colleges and universities across the nation and the National Institutes of Health has canceled more than $55.9 million in grants to Bay Area universities, targeting research on health equity, transgender youth, anti-racism and discrimination, vaccines, and aging.
UC officials announced a systemwide hiring freeze, while Stanford has taken its own steps to limit hiring and reduce spending in response to federal funding uncertainty.
Schools have urged the state to step in, with legislators considering a $23 billion taxpayer-funded bond to replace federal grants that once supercharged scientific research in California.
Stanford declined to comment on the latest ranking.
UC Berkeley, in a statement, emphasized that it continues to rank among the world’s leading public universities across several major rankings. The university said its public reputation “matters greatly” to the campus’s ability to deliver on its mission of teaching, research and public service.
“When averaged across the leading rankings of higher-education institutions, UC Berkeley is the #1 public university and ranks amongst the very best universities on the planet,” the university said in a statement Thursday. “We are proud of that long track record and the latest rankings, which reflect the work of our dedicated faculty, students and staff.”
Stanford received a global score of 94.4, ranking third for “global research reputation” and second for “regional research reputation.” The university, which serves more than 17,000 undergraduate and graduate students, also scored well for its number of highly cited papers and total research citations.
UC Berkeley, which serves more than 45,000 students, received a global score of 86.4, scoring sixth for “global research reputation” and third for “regional research reputation.”
U.S. News releases its list of top global universities each June and uses the British-American analytics and data science company Clarivate to survey schools and create the list. Schools receive a global score, with the top performer receiving a score of 100, while others scored from 0 to 99.
The 2026 iteration weeded out an initial pool of 2,438 universities to the top 2,250 schools and includes universities from 105 countries, including the U.S., China, Japan, India and the United Kingdom.
But the college rankings have also faced years of criticism over methodology, data collection and the incentives they create for universities. Some schools, including Columbia University, have stopped submitting data for the outlet’s undergraduate rankings, though those schools may still appear in other U.S. News rankings.