UC Berkeley and UCLA are back at it with their classic bragging rights battle.
The two California powerhouses lit up social media this week, playfully debating who deserves the crown as California’s top public university.
It all started when US News & World Report (US News) released its latest global university rankings, placing UC Berkeley sixth overall—right after five elite private universities like Harvard, MIT, and Stanford—making it the highest-ranked public school. To celebrate, UC Berkeley posted a photo of its bear mascot with the hashtag “#1 public.”
Not to be outdone, UCLA fired back with its own post reading “Still #1,” pointing to US News’ September 2023 national public university rankings, where UCLA claimed the top spot and UC Berkeley followed in second place.
Even school leaders joined in on the fun.
UC Berkeley Chancellor Rich Lyons joked, “It’s not easy competing with your younger sibling,” adding, “I’ll give UCLA credit for trying to prove everything with that one undergraduate ranking.” He poked fun at their age difference too, since UC Berkeley was founded in 1868 and UCLA in 1919.
UCLA Vice Chancellor Mary Osako brushed off the comment with a smile, saying, “We’ve been ranked #1 among national public universities for eight straight years.”
Behind these cheeky exchanges are some serious ranking criteria. Subhik Barari, a research methodologist at the University of Chicago NORC, explained, “The metrics change with each survey,” and added, “The weightings also vary each year.”
University rankings factor in academic research, citation rates, regional reputation, graduation rates, faculty resources, student-to-faculty ratios, and citation impact. For public universities in the global rankings, UC Berkeley leads, followed by University of Washington and UCLA. In the national public university rankings, it’s UCLA, UC Berkeley, then University of Michigan.
BY YOONJAE JUNG [jung.yoonjae@koreadaily.com]
