BU Today: BU Rises in New Rankings of World Universities and Cited as a Digital Leader in Higher Education
Excerpt from BU Today | By: Rich Barlow | June 18, 2025 | Photo: Ziyu (Julian) Zhu
A French rating company has put Boston University in the top tier of schools for digital education and graduates’ employability. It’s one of two shout-outs for BU this month by evaluators, with London-based QS also lauding the University in its annual World University Rankings.
Digital Leaders in Higher Education 2025, compiled by Emerging, a French company that partners with universities and colleges to incorporate employability in their missions, recognizes schools for “their emphasis on digital expertise and their commitment to teaching transferable digital skills across the curriculum.” The ratings gave BU high grades in several categories:
9th out of 150 schools for Data Science, AI, & Business Analytics, which combines artificial intelligence with automation to bolster business operations;
11th out of 200 schools in Digital Talent Development;
12th out of 150 schools for Computer Science;
21st out of 150 schools in Digital Entrepreneurship, which assesses universities that educate students to create and manage digital businesses; and
21st out of 150 schools for Digital Transformation Management, measuring universities’ training of students in both technology and business skills.
“I am pleased that Boston University’s already strong global reputation continues to expand, and I’m especially delighted with how these rankings recognize our growth in our digital education offerings and resources,” says BU President Melissa Gilliam. “We are at the forefront of higher education in preparing future leaders to be successful in an increasingly digital world.”
Given that the raters rely heavily on institutions’ reputations in assembling their lists, “BU’s ascent in computing, data science, and AI is being noticed and appreciated by our peers as well as by employers of our students,” says Azer Bestavros, associate provost for Computing & Data Sciences (CDS) and a William Fairfield Warren Distinguished Professor. He credits that high reputation to the University’s approach to investing in those fields, “not as stand-alone disciplines, but as crosscutting catalysts for advancing all disciplines and for preparing students for careers in all professions.
“Going forward, now that CDS programs are in full swing, what we are seeing in these most recent rankings is only a harbinger of good news about BU’s remarkable forward momentum. The data used in these rankings do not reflect the incredible growth in faculty recruitment in digital science/AI areas, not just in CDS but across BU. They do not reflect new programs we launched, most notably our residential and online professional MS in data science.”