The Federal University of Juiz de Fora (UFJF) has reaffirmed its position of distinction, for the second time, in the QS World University Rankings. In the 2023 edition, which included over 1,400 higher education institutions worldwide, only 35 were from Brazil, and UFJF is listed as the 18th best university in the country. When considering only institutions in the state of Minas Gerais, UFJF ranks second.

The rankings, released in June, area released annually and are one of the main sources of assessment of higher education. The global higher education consultancy QS Quacquarelli Symonds evaluated 2,963 institutions from 104 countries.

Typically, the rankings assess eight categories: academic reputation, employer reputation, faculty-to-student ratio, citations per faculty, faculty qualifications, citations per paper, web impact, and international research network. However, in this edition, QS made changes to the methodology by introducing three new metrics: sustainability, employability, and international research network. Additionally, the ranking organization adjusted the weightage of some indicators, such as academic reputation, employer reputation, and student-to-faculty ratio.

According to Michele Farage, the Director of Institutional Assessment at UFJF, this is a significant recognition, particularly because it stems from research conducted by an independent institute, for which UFJF does not take any direct actions.

“This result aligns with the recent official evaluation in which the commission from the National Institute for Educational Studies and Research Anísio Teixeira (Inep) of the Ministry of Education (MEC) awarded UFJF the highest rating”