UC Berkeley Ranked No. 1 Public University In US News Global Rankings Yet Again
Go Bears!
UC Berkeley has once again claimed the title of the nation’s top public university, this time in U.S. News & World Report’s 2026 Best Global Universities rankings. The university placed No. 7 overall among more than 2,250 research institutions worldwide — a distinction it has held every year since the list launched in 2014.
The global rankings evaluate universities across more than 100 countries on 13 metrics, including global and research reputation and the volume of highly cited scholarly papers. This year, Berkeley earned top-three national recognition in seven subject areas: Environmental science, ecology, water resources, physics, computer science, chemistry, and engineering, and placed in the top five nationally across 17 subjects in total.
Berkeley’s dominance isn’t limited to the global list. In September 2025, U.S. News named it the No. 1 public institution in its Best Colleges rankings for the 16th time in two decades. The university also topped rankings from Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, and Times Higher Education in the past year.
If you want to build your legacy, there is no better way to get started on that path than by becoming a California Golden Bear.
As always, university rankings are dumb and based on arbitrary rankings, unless we're number 1 then they're completely valid and incredibly important.
We are proud parents of our son, Cal alumnus, graduated from this one of the world’s prestigious university.