Three Canadian universities land high scores in new global rankings

In the latest edition of the QS World University Rankings, only three Canadian universities made it into the top 50, with McGill University taking the top spot.

Rankings are published annually by Quacquarelli Symonds (QS), a UK-based company specializing in higher education analysis and the provision of comparative data.

McGill University was number 31 on the 2023 list, scored 81.9 out of a possible 100 points.

The University of Toronto was not far behind, at 34 on the list, scoring 81.5.

The University of British Columbia ranks 47th with 77 points to round out the top three Canadian universities on the list.

According to QS, the top five universities in the world were Massachusetts Institute of Technology (USA), University of Cambridge (UK), Stanford University (USA), University of Oxford ( UK) and Harvard University (USA). This is the 11th consecutive year that the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has won the top spot.

The comprehensive list includes over 1,400 universities from around the world.

A press release said this year’s ranking is their “biggest ever”, covering 100 destinations in total “with the US, UK and mainland China the most represented”.

Establishments are scored in multiple categories to create the final list. QS examines the school’s reputation in academic contexts and with employers. They then look at the faculty-to-student ratio and the international-to-domestic student or faculty ratio. Finally, they examine citations by faculty member to judge the quality and influence of research coming out of the university.

The other top performing Canadian universities to rank between 100 and 200 on the list were University of Alberta at 110, University of Montreal at 116, McMaster University at 152, University of Waterloo at 154 and Western University at 172.

This is followed by the University of Ottawa (237), the University of Calgary (242), Queen’s University (246), Dalhousie University (308), Simon Fraser University (328), the University of Victoria (359), Laval University, York University (456), University of Saskatchewan (473), all ranked in the top 500.

QS began publishing annual world university rankings in 2004.

This year’s ranking saw Canadian universities stumble from last year’s 2022 ranking, where the University of Toronto ranked 26 on the list, above McGill at 27, while the UBC came in at 46 on the list.