10 Global Stories from 2018: Top International Rankings, an Athlete’s Unbreakable Spirit, and a Journey to Oxford

From ranking in the best 100 universities in the world to earning the distinction as a top Fulbright producer, the University of Arizona embodied a global spirit in 2018. As the year draws to a close, we’re rounding up 10 of the year’s global stories.

1. The University of Arizona was in the spotlight in the international rankings world in 2018. In October, the UA was ranked No. 81 out of 1,250 universities across 75 countries by U.S. News and World Report.

2. UA research was recognized by the Center for World University Rankings. The University of Arizona finished in the top 0.28 percent among more than 18,000 higher-education institutions worldwide on this list.

3. The UA also had an abundance of globally-minded students in 2018. So many, in fact, that the University of Arizona was named one of the top producers of Fulbright Students for the 2017-18 academic year.

4. The UA also made the cut for the Peace Corps, moving into the top 20 among large schools on the agency’s 2018 Top Volunteer-Producing Colleges and Universities list. The UA also ranked No. 15 for all-time top Peace Corps volunteer-producing schools.

5. Leah Crowder, earning an M.A. in Middle Eastern and North African Studies, was named one of 32 Rhodes Scholars nationwide, and the only in Arizona. She’ll head to Oxford University in 2019.

6. The UA School of Journalism honored CNN en Español journalist Carmen Aristegui with the John Peter and Anna Catherine Zenger Award for Press Freedom for her fearless dedication to exposing government corruption in Mexico.

7. The James E. Rogers College of Law established a program with the Mexican Foreign Ministry to train diplomats on the foundations of U.S. law, helping to enhance consular services and strengthen binational relations.

8. Worlds of Words, the second largest collection of global literature for children and young adults in the world received a $1M gift from the collection's director, Kathy G. Short, and her husband, Jerry Short.

9. The U.S. Department of Education awarded Title VI grants totaling more than $4.8 million to support the Center for Educational Resources in Culture, Language and Literacy, the Center for Latin American Studies, and the Center for Middle Eastern Studies.

10. A profound inspiration, UA freshman Josh Brewer went from begging for food in his native Ethiopia, to a horrific train accident that almost claimed his life, to a role on the UA Men’s Wheelchair Basketball team.

Of course the UA went far beyond the globe in 2018, leading the OSIRIS-Rex mission that discovered water on the asteroid Bennu. For more on that story, and other top stories from the University of Arizona in 2018, read our inspiration for this global roundup in UA News.