CWUR uses seven objective and robust indicators grouped into four areas to rank the world’s universities:
1) Education: based on the academic success of a university’s alumni, and measured by the number of a university's alumni who have won prestigious academic distinctions relative to the university's size (25%)
2) Employability: based on the professional success of a university’s alumni, and measured by the number of a university's alumni who have held top positions at major companies relative to the university's size (25%)
3) Faculty: measured by the number of faculty members who have won prestigious academic distinctions (10%)
4) Research:
i) Research Output: measured by the total number of research papers (10%)
ii) High-Quality Publications: measured by the number of research papers appearing in top-tier journals (10%)
iii) Influence: measured by the number of research papers appearing in highly-influential journals (10%)
iv) Citations: measured by the number of highly-cited research papers (10%)
