UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Penn State rose to 20th among U.S. public universities, and placed 42nd in the nation overall, in the 2024 Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings, released Sept. 27. Penn State placed in the top 6% globally among about 1,900 ranked institutions, rising 29 places to No. 122 in the world.

“Times Higher Education is one of the foremost rankings for international higher education,” noted Roger Brindley, vice provost for Penn State Global. “International students, parents, alumni and prospective partners use these global rankings as one of the many indicators of Penn State’s strength as a world-class academic and research institution. I am pleased to see that the institution’s excellence continues to be recognized around the world. This is a testament to those faculty who conduct extraordinary research around the critical challenges we face in society today, while leading exemplary learning communities in our classrooms and labs.”

The Times Higher Education World University Rankings are considered one of the three most respected international university ranking systems, along with the QS World University Rankings and the Academic Ranking of World Universities, according to Brindley.

Times Higher Education’s World University Rankings evaluate research-intensive universities around the globe, growing from 200 universities in 2004 to more than 1,900 schools in 2024. THE ranks universities across five “pillars” relevant to research institutions: Teaching, Research Environment, Research Quality, Industry, and International Outlook. 

According to THE, for 2024, the updated methodology has added performance indicators to improve the global comparisons, and to provide better context for institutional changes over the years. Unlike many American rankings, THE places significant weight on an institution’s research community, evaluating its reputation from peers, its overall excellence, and global influence. New metrics added for 2024 include Research Strength, Research Excellence and Research Influence, as well as Patents and Studying Abroad.

Penn State’s scores in nearly every measure improved this year, especially under teaching and research. The University’s ranking is buoyed by its strong, $1 billion research enterprise, ranking in the top 5% of universities worldwide for the pillar of Research Environment, which includes metrics for productivity, reputation and income. The University also scored well in research excellence and influence, which play into the Research Quality metric.

“The rise in our Times Higher Education rankings is indicative of the power of the Penn State research enterprise and the ‘long game’ of our research,” said Andrew Read, interim senior vice president for Research at Penn State. “Our scientific contributions and scholarly work bring positive impact to our communities, our industries, and our world, for generations to come.”

Penn State’s research enterprise extends around the world from its home in Pennsylvania, impacting families, communities and countries globally with its research programs, such as: 

• PlantVillage, which has created an algorithm called “Nuru” and is responsible for helping to save millions of livelihoods of smallholder farmers in Africa by allowing them to diagnose crop disease from their mobile devices. Nuru also is helping to diagnose spotted lanternfly outbreaks in Pennsylvania. 

• LionGlass is an entirely new family of glass invented and engineered by a team of Penn State students and scientists that requires significantly less energy to produce and is much more damage resistant than standard soda lime silicate glass. 

• Penn State and the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe have partnered on an initiative called the Global Building Network to develop an international framework to make buildings more sustainable, efficient and healthier.  

• Penn State is a key member of the Colombia-USA Water-Energy-Food Nexus Alliance, a research coalition composed of the Stockholm Environment Institute Latin America Center and three Colombia universities, to promote water security in the country. 

• The Convergence Center for Living Multifunctional Material Systems, a partnership with the University of Freiburg, is working across departments and continents to engineer adaptive, self-powering, living materials that respond to their environment. 

• Penn State is leading the Center for Heterogeneous Integration of Micro Electronic Systems (CHIMES) to advance heterogenous integration, the efficient and effective integration and packaging of semiconductor devices, chips and other components. 

• In the START Lab, Penn State partners with the Federal Aviation Administration, the U.S. Department of Energy National Energy Technology Lab, and aerospace company Pratt & Whitney to create new solutions for sustainable power and propulsion research through advancing gas turbine technologies. 

In addition, Penn State continues to place highly in rankings released by organizations with methodologies that focus on faculty and research excellence. In the 2023 Center for World University Rankings poll, Penn State ranked No. 54 out of 2,000 institutions internationally for the quality of its education, employability, faculty and research. In June, the University placed 8th among all public universities in the U.S., and 83rd in the world in the 2024 QS World University Rankings. Penn State’s sustainability efforts have been recognized by Times Higher Education’s Impact Rankings, in which the University ranked No. 3 in the U.S. and No. 40 worldwide; and by the QS sustainability rankings, which last fall placed Penn State at No. 38 in the world.