Washington University was ranked 41st on a list of the best schools in the world by The Times Higher Education World University Rankings earlier this month.

This is further down the list than other U.S. schools which are ranked near the University in domestic rankings.

While the University currently holds the No. 14 spot in the U.S. News & World Report ranking, many international sources place the University well below this number and its domestic peers.

According to William Darby, a professor of engineering, it is important for students to look at the underlying distinctions in criteria among the ranking institutions to understand what this discrepancy in rankings means.

“If you look at U.S. News & World Report, I think I can get away with saying that virtually all of their measures are related to the undergraduate experience,” Darby said. “If you move to the world rankings, virtually all of them are rankings of citations, publications, how many Nobel prizes you’ve got and so on. They virtually pay no attention to the undergraduate experience at all.”

Darby noted that one main difference between international rankings and national rankings is its emphasis on research, which is not the University’s sole objective.

“Institutions have different missions, they have different cultures, they have different approaches,” Darby said. “And I think the important thing is to make the most of what is your culture, what is your mission. Our mission is not exclusively research.”

Several international students at the University said that the world rankings did not influence their college decisions.

“When I was applying to schools, I only applied to schools in America. I went through the national rankings,” sophomore Ali Haroon said.

Since Haroon was unable to visit schools when making his college decision, he based his choice predominantly on what he heard from others and on the U.S. national rankings.

“In terms of ranking, besides undergrad ranking, I looked at grad school department rankings, med school rankings, and back then Wash. U. ranked fourth,” sophomore Ryan Lee said. “So that means we had a strong pre-med department, which made me apply.”

Anthropology professor James Wertsch is proud of the advancement and growth that Washington University has experienced over the past several years but still thinks the University can further excel in the international sector.

“We are not just trying to build numbers,” Wertsch said. “We want to find the best young minds in the world and bring them here into the heart of Washington University, and be a part of our long-term community.”

Wertsch said that, in order to become more globally known, Washington University’s main priority is to provide a high quality education to its students and to increase the University’s focus on international culture.

“For the knowledge production of this university as well as the educational opportunities, that’s the two big things we do, research, and education, we have to be global,” Wertsch said. “We’re trying to find our strategic way of doing that without changing the basic mission of the University.”