ODU Moves Up in Ranking of World's Higher Education Institutions

Old Dominion University has increased its standing in two worldwide rankings of higher education institutions.

In the prestigious global ranking by London-based Times Higher Education, Old Dominion is among a group of schools ranked between 351st and 400th in the world, out of thousands that were surveyed. The university was not among the top 400 institutions in last year's rankings.

Other schools in the 351-400 range from the 2011 ranking include Auburn University, Clemson University and Kobe University in Japan. Data were not released by Times Higher Education for schools ranked between 200 and 400.

Ranking Web - a twice yearly ranking of Internet presence for higher education institutions worldwide - also has ranked ODU 514th out of nearly 3,000 schools surveyed. This ranking, which is intended to motivate both institutions and scholars to accurately reflect their activities with a Web presence, grades schools in four categories: size, visibility, number of rich files and scholarly activity online. The survey ranked ODU 177th among universities in the United States. These rankings also reflect a higher standing for the university over last year.

ODU President John R. Broderick said the rankings reflect a commitment by the university to improve its academic standing and increase its online visibility.

"We've made across-the-board efforts, in every college, to increase our scholarly efforts, engage our student body and alumni, innovate, collaborate and excel. I think this is reflected in the new rankings," Broderick said.