The Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) has released its annual list of the top 500 universities in the world, including UMBC as one of 146 American universities recognized. The list features prominent universities from around the globe, including many in Great Britain, Germany and China. The ARWU is produced by the Center for World-Class Universities (CWCU) at Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China. It is based on six indicators, including prestigious scholarships (number of alumni and staff winning Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals); influence and citations (number of highly cited researchers and number of articles indexed in Thomson Reuters …