It hasn’t caught up to McGill University – yet – but the Université de Montréal seems to be the local institution with bragging rights after the latest university rankings were made public Wednesday.
In a year when 10 of Canada’s 26 institutions lost ground – including the top triumvirate of University of Toronto, University of British Columbia and McGill – U de M moved up 10 spots to claim the 103rd position in the latest Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings.
Still well behind U of T at 22 (from 19), UBC at 36 (34) and McGill at 42 (38), U de M was nonetheless delighted with its results.
“That’s 10 points in a very, very competitive environment,” rector Guy Breton said in an interview. “Just to stay the same would be a great achievement.”
Not many in the top 100 are non-anglophone institutions, Breton boasted – and he said the students the university trains, from dentists to historians, are world-class.
| 1 | University of Oxford |
|---|---|
| 2 | California Institute of Technology |
| 3 | Stanford University |
| 4 | University of Cambridge |
| 5 | Massachussetts Institute of Technology |
| 6 | Harvard University |
| 7 | Princeton University |
| 8 | Imperial College London |
| 9 | ETH Zurich — Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich |
| 10 | University of California, Berkeley |
| 10 | University of Chicago |
| 12 | Yale University |
| 13 | University of Pennsylvania |
| 14 | University of California, Los Angeles |
| 15 | University of College London |
| 16 | Columbia University |
| 17 | Johns Hopkins University |
| 18 | Duke University |
| 19 | Cornell University |
| 20 | Northwestern University |
| 21 | University of Michigan |
| 22 | University of Toronto |
| 23 | Carnegie Mellon University |
| 24 | National University of Singapore |
| 25 | London School of Economics and Political Science |
Worldwide, the results produced a sizeable shake-up, as the U.S. lost its status as home of the world’s top university for the first time in the 12-year history of the rankings. This year, the University of Oxford knocked five-time champion California Institute of Technology into second place.
Tucked between the University of California in San Diego and Heidelberg University in Germany, McGill found itself in 42nd place, having lost slightly more ground (one spot) to the U of T from last year.
“Rankings are not an exact science, and different methodologies measure different things. But the various rankings provide, over time, useful reference points for an institution’s performance,” McGill provost Christopher Manfredi said in a statement. “We are pleased to remain among the world’s top universities in the latest THE ranking.”
Asia’s continuing ascent was also noteworthy, with two new entries in the top 100 and four joining the top 200 from Hong Kong, South Korea and China. Its leading institution, the National University of Singapore, rose to 24th, its highest ever.
The U.S., however, still dominates the rankings, with 148 institutions in the top 980, 63 of which made the top 200.
“Canada’s success cannot be guaranteed in the long-term while more of Asia’s leading universities soar to join the world elite,” said Phil Baty, editor of THE rankings.
The problem, Baty said in an interview, is that the money available in Canada is too stretched. “Being world class requires talent,” he said, and money is required to attract the best talent. China has now overtaken the U.S. in terms of the sheer volume of its researchers.
Breton agreed that it is harder to compete when countries like China are putting huge resources into higher education. Still, he is optimistic U de M can move up again.
“I would never underestimate the talent and passion that resides here,” he said.
Baty said U de M had proven strong across the board, particularly with a vigorous international outlook. And he said there’s no doubt that U of T, McGill and UBC have “very, very strong citation impacts” when it comes to research.
The expanded list this year is a testament to how competitive global higher education has become, Baty said.
THE rankings judge research-intensive universities across their core missions: teaching, research, knowledge transfer and international outlook, and bills itself as the world’s most authoritative source of information about higher education.
Making it onto the list of the top 980, in any position, is still admirable – the list represents just five per cent of the world’s higher education institutions.
To see full results, go to timeshighereducation.com/world-university-rankings/2017/world-ranking.
