Rankings

32 Canadian universities in top 1,000 ranking

See how your school compares globally

TORONTO, ON - SEPTEMBER 09, 2010 - Frosh week at the University of Toronto. Photograph by Andrew Tolson

Frosh week at the University of Toronto in 2010 (Andrew Tolson)

A new global ranking has measured the quality of 1,000 universities.

The Center for World University Rankings (CWUR), in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, assessed schools using data on: the proportions of alumni and faculty who have won major international awards; the proportions of alumni who are CEOs of the top 2,000 companies (according to Forbes); and other factors. According to CWUR’s Nadim Mahassen, this is superior to the Times Higher Education World University Rankings approach, which is based partially on reputation surveys, and the Shanghai Jiao Tong University’s Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU), which leans heavily on scientific publications.

CWUR’s top 10 are all in the U.S. and U.K., as is the case for the other two major global rankings. The top five are Harvard, Stanford, MIT, Cambridge and Oxford.

Thirty-two Canadian schools made the list, compared to 229 for the U.S., 84 for China, 74 for Japan, 64 for the U.K., 55 for Germany, 50 for France, 47 for Italy, 41 for Spain, 34 for South Korea and 27 for Australia.

The top three in Canada are the University of Toronto (31), McGill University (42) and the University of British Columbia (61). They are also the top three in Canada on the Times and ARWU lists and in the Maclean’s University Rankings Medical Doctoral category.

Maclean’s University Rankings consider reputation surveys, research funding, student support and much more. Maclean’s places universities in one of three categories—Medical Doctoral, Comprehensive and Primarily Undergraduate—to recognize differences in types of institutions, levels of research funding, diversity of offerings, and breadth and depth of graduate and professional programs.

Here’s how Canada’s schools ranked in the CWUR report compared to the ARWU, Times rankings and Maclean’s rankings. Medical Doctoral schools are tagged as MD, Comprehensive as C and Primarily Undergraduate as PU. Asterisks indicate ties.


CWUR ARWU Times Maclean's
University of Toronto 1 1 1 3 (MD)
McGill University 2 3 3 1 (MD)
University of British Columbia 3 2 2 2 (MD)
University of Alberta 4 5* 6 5 (MD)
Université de Montréal 5 5* 5 11 (MD)
McMaster University 6 4 4 6 (MD)
Western University 7 8* 11* 9* (MD)
University of Calgary 8 8* 8* 9* (MD)
University of Ottawa 9 8* 7 8 (MD)
University of Manitoba 10 17* 18* 14 (MD)
Laval University 11 8* 8* 13 (MD)
Queen's University 12 8* 11* 4 (MD)
University of Waterloo 13 7 11* 3 (C)
Dalhousie University 14 8* 15* 7 (MD)
University of Guelph 15 8* 19* 5* (C)
University of Victoria 16 17* 8* 1 (C)
Simon Fraser University 17 8* 11* 2 (C)
York University 18 19* 16* 9 (C)
Concordia University 18 19* N/A 13 (C)
University of Saskatchewan 20 8* N/A 12 (MD)
University of Sherbrooke 21 19* N/A 15 (MD)
Carleton University 22 19* 16* 7 (C)
University of Windsor 23 N/A N/A 10* (C)
Memorial University of Newfoundland 24 N/A N/A 5* (C)
University of Québec at Montreal 25 19* N/A 14 (C)
École Polytechnique de Montréal 26 N/A N/A N/A
Wilfrid Laurier University 27 N/A N/A 10* (C)
University of Regina 28 N/A N/A 8 (C)
University of New Brunswick 29 N/A N/A 4 (C)
Trent University 30 N/A N/A 6 (PU)
Brock University 31 N/A N/A 15 (C)
Ryerson University 32 N/A N/A 10* (C)

 

 

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