The recognition that Boston University receives internationally was demonstrated recently in London’s The Times Higher Education supplement, which ranked BU at No. 54 in the world and No. 21 within North America compared with other universities.

This is a well-deserved recognition for BU, often overshadowed in U.S. media’s much lower rankings, which obviously have not taken the same factors into consideration when placing a value on BU.

U.S. rankings seem to prefer schools based on their historical status more than on actual statistics. They also seem to prefer liberal arts-driven universities before vocation-driven universities. Many of Boston University’s several colleges – the Schools of Management, Hospitality Administration, Education and others – are vocation-driven, but still stress the importance of learning in the liberal arts. Universities in the United States – in general – are more liberal arts-based than schools in Europe, where they are meant to train students for entry into a specific profession. Students in Europe often are required to go into a university knowing their career path beforehand.

The Times’s ranking may have taken into consideration the location of universities, and BU being in a world-class city, where students are not restricted to the bounds of a campus and where internships and jobs are more readily available, probably helped raise its overall standing.

BU students not only have the added luxury of going to school in this world-class city, but in 16 other cities across the globe through its international programs, another factor which is probably included in The Times’s ranking.

BU already has the eighth largest population of international students of any other university in the U.S. One of these students, the son of the late Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, the namesake of the School of Management building, went to BU and is now running for the same public office that his father held. The Times’s ranking could attract more foreign students and will certainly bring this university more into the international arena of outstanding higher learning institutions.

One factor that likely hurts BU’s ranking in national publications is the university’s relatively high acceptance rate – currently at 55 percent as reported by the College Board.

National publications also seem to have a somewhat biased view of BU based on what the university was in the 1970s and 1980s, without taking into account how much this school has improved over the years. President Emeritus John Silber repeatedly stated his lack of concern for such rankings, and his departure in 2003 might have changed BU’s attitude on the subject.

What continues to make BU appealing to students is the broad spectrum of concentrations it offers. Students also enroll into the university without having to know beforehand their future career plans, unlike in Europe, where at many universities once students enter into a field, or “faculty,” they have less ability to change their mind. And with the publication of The Times’s ranking, BU students can be assured that it only goes uphill from here.