Academic success, employability drive SDSU into top 3% of global universities
SDSU ranks in the top 3% out of 21,462 universities worldwide, according to the 2025 edition of the outcome-based Global 2000 list by the Center for World University Rankings.
San Diego State University ranks in the top 3% of global universities and among the top 150 universities in the U.S., according to the latest Global 2000 list published by the Center for World University Rankings (CWUR) this week.
This year, SDSU ranks as follows:
- World Rank: 625 out of 21,462
- Regional Rank (USA and Canada): 171
- National Rank: 150
- Education Rank: 217
- Employability Rank: 475 (Top 2.3%)
- Research Rank: 621 (Top 2.9%)
- Overall Score: 73.3
The Global 2000 is the largest academic ranking in the world, according to the CWUR. CWUR considers student success, employability, faculty distinctions, research and other factors in evaluating 21,462 institutions across the globe. It uses measures of seven indicators grouped into four key areas: education, employability, faculty, and research.
SDSU has maintained a top 3% position in the CWUR’s rankings since at least 2021.
“For SDSU to earn and maintain its top 3% ranking in the competitive ecosystem of international higher education underscores what we know to be true at SDSU: students are at our core,” said SDSU President Adela de la Torre. “Earning this recognition in such a comprehensive analysis should make the entire SDSU community very proud, and is a testament to our outstanding faculty, staff, and students.”
The Global 2000 list uses objective indicators and does not rely on surveys and university data submissions, according to the CWUR. Equal emphasis is put on student-related and faculty-related indicators, and 74 million outcome-based data points were used for this year’s rankings, according to CWUR.
In May, more than 12,000 graduates participated in commencement ceremonies at SDSU and SDSU Imperial Valley, adding themselves to the university’s more than 500,000 living alumni, a milestone surpassed by the graduating class of 2024. In February, the university joined the top 5% of universities in the U.S. to be designated as an R1 institution by the Carnegie Classifications of Institutions of Higher Education.
SDSU has also been favored in other notable university rankings, including the Princeton Review’s Top 50 Green Colleges (No. 42), and Money magazine’s Best Colleges in America (4.5/5 stars). In April, U.S. News & World Report highlighted several SDSU graduate programs in the top 50 of its graduate school rankings, and in January, placed SDSU’s online master’s degree in education at No. 3 in its 2025 Best Online Master’s in Education Program Rankings.
