The Center for World University Rankings has released its 2013 rankings of the top 100 degree-granting institutions of higher education, and Dear Old State came in at No. 50 — a jump up from No. 64 on the same list last year.

The top 100 includes 57 institutions in the United States, 27 in Europe, and 16 among Australia, Canada, Israel, Japan, Singapore, and South Korea. Penn State comes in at No. 34 for American universities, but still oddly only 7th in the Big Ten.

Don’t worry, though — the University of Pittsburgh comes in appropriately at No. 69.

The Center for World University Rankings uses seven indicators to produce its rankings:

1) Quality of faculty members, measured by the number of academics who have won major international awards, prizes, and medals
2) Publications, measured by the number of research papers appearing in reputable international journals
3) Influence, measured by the number of research papers appearing in highly-influential journals
4) Citations, measured by the number of highly-cited research papers
5) Patents, measured by the number of international patent filings
6) Alumni employment, measured by the number of a university’s alumni who currently hold CEO positions at the world’s top 2000 public companies relative to the university’s size
7) Quality of education, measured by the number of a university’s alumni who have won major international awards, prizes, and medals relative to the university’s size

Its stated aim is “to measure the quality of education and training of students as well as the prestige of the faculty and the quality of their research.”

Penn State placed best in research citations, coming in at 23rd in the world.

You can check out the full world rankings here.