UC San Diego was ranked Thursday as the world’s best university founded in the decades after World War II ended in 1945.
Times Higher Education, a London-based publication, ranked universities founded during what it called a “golden age” between 1945 and 1966 that was characterized by rapid university expansion and increasing investment in research.
Though UC San Diego topped the list, three other postwar California universities made the ranking. UC Irvine came in ninth, UC San Cruz 15th and UC Riverside 19th.
The Australian National University in Canberra was second, and Seoul National University in South Korea third in the global rankings.
“Being unbound by tradition has given our campus the liberty to innovate,” said UC San Diego Chancellor Pradeep K. Khosla. “UC San Diego was an experiment: our model from day one was focused on issues, rather than disciplines. This nontraditional approach allows our students, faculty and researchers to make contributions that benefit society in myriad ways.”
Times Higher Education cited UC San Diego’s innovative system of six residential colleges and focus on ground-breaking research as reasons for the top ranking.
“A notable feature of the university is its numerous research institutes which receive considerable public funding,” the Times said. “This investment has led to nearly 30,000 newly created jobs, notable profits generated from the sale of licensed technology and the launch of over 600 new companies operated by UCSD affiliates.”