The 2025 Times Higher Education World University Rankings was released last week and Virginia Tech has been listed among the world’s top universities.
This particular ranking judges excellence on a global scale. Virginia Tech ranked in the 251-300 range out of 2,092 universities. Also, Virginia Tech ranked No. 63 among U.S. institutions – a three-spot jump from a year ago.
Of note, Virginia Tech ranked tied for No. 15 among public Carnegie Class-Very High Research land-grant universities, which is one of the university’s key performance indicators as part of its global distinction mission.
The methodology for the ranking, which reflects the outputs of the diverse range of research-intensive universities, considers 18 indicators across five key factors: teaching (the learning environment); research environment (volume, income, and reputation); research quality (citation impact, research strength, research excellence, and research influence); international outlook (staff, students, and research); and industry (income and patents).
Research quality and research environment account for 60 percent of a university’s overall score. The research and teaching reputation scores account for 33 percent of the overall score.
“Virginia Tech is committed to tackling the world’s most challenging problems through research and education,” said Dan Sui, senior vice president for research and innovation. “The university’s outstanding performance in the Times Higher Education’s recent World University Rankings shows the quality and the impact of that research worldwide, and as a result, we’re continuing to attract the faculty, staff, student, and partner talent needed to fulfill our mission as a land-grant university.”
Some of Virginia Tech’s research emphasis was on display this summer when Times Higher Education released its Impact rankings, which focuses on sustainable development goals. The university scored well in the Zero Hunger category because of research such as the launching a biocontrol program in Bangladesh to combat invasive weeds and improve crop production and also Ozzie Abaye’s emphasis on mung bean production in Senegal to combat food insecurity. In addition, Virginia Tech scored well in the Reduced Inequalities category in those same rankings in part because of Rich Hanowski’s motorcycle research designed to help reduce collisions in low- and middle-income countries such as Malaysia.
Examples of recent undergraduate research projects include a study that focuses on how bacteria move across surfaces and a unique summer research program to train future environmental scientists how to collect microplastic samples in a marsh ecosystem.
“The university’s commitment to research and discovery creates a special learning environment for our undergraduate students, and these scores show the impact that their work is having on a global scale,” said Rachel Holloway, vice provost for undergraduate academic affairs. “The opportunity to work alongside faculty as they solve the world’s most challenging problems is inspirational and motivational for our students. As a form of experiential learning, undergraduate research allows students to apply classroom learning to produce real-world solutions.”
Virginia Tech increased its scores from last year in four of the five pillars – research quality, research environment, industry, and international outlook. The university’s best score came in the category of research quality, checking in with a 79.7 score. The research quality factor considers a university’s citation impact by capturing the average number of times a university’s published work is cited by scholars globally.
Virginia Tech also finished with a 79.7 score in industry. Research environment consists of reputation, income, and productivity, while the industry factor suggests the extent to which businesses are willing to pay for research and a university’s ability to attract funding in the commercial marketplace – useful indicators of institutional quality.
Recent examples of the collaboration between Virginia Tech’s research power and industry include a project with partner Mosaic ATM, a leading aviation research and development company, to study a detect and avoid system for drone vs. drone encounters, and a project with The Washington Post to create an artificial intelligence search tool to help users better access the publication’s archive.
Virginia Tech has chosen the two Times Higher Education rankings – the World University rankings and the Impact rankings – as proxies to assess strategic progress related to the university’s land-grant mission.
Mark Owczarski for Virginia Tech
