Warwick ranked world’s 45th most international university

Warwick has been ranked the world’s 45th “ most international ” university in 2016, according to Times Higher Education.

It is the 16th UK university in the list, behind institutions such as Imperial College London, Oxford, and University College London. Qatar University topped the table overall.

The news comes after a year of climbing league tables for Warwick. It was named the 2015 Sunday Times’ ‘University of the Year’, and 61st in the QS World University Rankings.

Vice-Chancellor Nigel Thrift said: “This result recognises Warwick’s significant international reputation and engagement.

“We now have students and staff from over 120 countries on our campus, and in the last decade we have added significantly to our international links and activities.”

The methodology for the Times’ international ranking is based on an ‘international outlook indicator’.

This takes into account an institution’s percentage of international staff, percentage of international students, and percentage of research papers published with at least one co-author from a different country.

Teaching, research and paper citations are weighted most heavily in the indicator, whereas percentage of international students and staff, along with income from industry, are weighted relatively lightly.

The methodology can be viewed in full, here.

Sophie Worrall, Warwick Students’ Union’s (SU) international officer for EU students, said the SU was proud of the achievement. “Being a student at Warwick I believe we have a first hand opportunity to be part of a globalised world. The achievement is a result of thorough integration of the many international students.”

However, when asked by the Boar whether more could be done to integrate home and international students, she said: “Right now we have a clear classification of ‘home’ and ‘international’ students and I hope that in the future this barrier will be broken down.”

She declined to answer whether the relentless pursuit of ‘internationalism’ was inherently a good thing.

Warwick was ranked 32nd most international university by the Times in 2015, however the Times “strongly advise against direct comparisons with previous years’ World University Rankings… because of changes in the underlying data.”