Rankings of universities in Canada


Rankings of universities in Canada are typically published annually by a variety of nationally, and internationally based publications. Rankings of post-secondary institutions have most often been conducted by magazines, newspapers, websites, governments, or academia. Ranking are established to help inform potential applicants about universities in Canada based on a range of criteria, including student body characteristics, classes, faculty, finances, library, and reputation. Various rankings consider combinations of factors, including funding and endowment, research excellence and/or influence, specialization expertise, admissions, student options, award numbers, internationalization, graduate employment, industrial linkage, historical reputation and other criteria. Various rankings also evaluate universities based on research output. Canadian-based publications have generally limited their evaluations on universities in Canada, whereas internationally based rankings ranked Canadian institutions alongside other higher education institutions around the world.
Canadian universities have ranked in international rankings including the Academic Ranking of World Universities, QS World University Rankings, the Times Higher Education World University Rankings, and the U.S. News & World Report Best Global University Ranking. Several nationally based publication have also produced rankings for Canadian universities, the most prominent being the news magazine Maclean's under the name Guide to Canadian Universities which began in 1991.

International rankings

Bibliometric-based rankings

rankings are based off citation analysis, evaluating the impact a university has on specialized journals and other academic publications. Bibliometrics is a field of statistics used to provide quantitative analysis of academic literature. Annual international rankings of this nature include the Academic Ranking of World Universities, published by the Shanghai Ranking Consultancy; the Performance Ranking of Scientific Papers for World Universities, published by the National Taiwan University; and University Ranking by Academic Performance, published by the Middle East Technical University. Although these rankings attempt to provide a quantitative analysis of a university's academic performance, differences in methodologies, and weighting of factors differentiates these rankings.
The following table includes Canadian universities, and their most recent global rank in the aforementioned publications :
University2019 Academic Ranking of World Universities2019 Performance Ranking of Scientific Papers for World Universities2018–19 University Ranking by Academic Performance
University of Alberta101 – 150 81 78
University of British Columbia35 27 27
University of Calgary151 – 200 132 139
Carleton University701 – 800 501 – 550 536
Concordia University801 – 900 701 – 750 612
Dalhousie University201 – 300 301 302
University of Guelph301 – 400 446 407
Lakehead University901– 1000
Université Laval201 – 300 255 238
University of Manitoba301 – 400 301 285
McGill University90 47 37
McMaster University90 119 126
Memorial University of Newfoundland501 – 600 601 – 650 580
Université de Montréal151 – 200 104 99
University of New Brunswick925
University of Ontario Institute of Technology701 – 800
University of Ottawa151 – 200 147 152
Université du Québec à Montréal601 – 700 651 – 700 605
Queen's University at Kingston301 – 400 344 353
University of Regina701 – 800 898
Ryerson University901– 1000 730
University of Saskatchewan301 – 400 428 365
Université de Sherbrooke701 – 800 551 – 600 552
Simon Fraser University301 – 400 378 362
University of Toronto24 4 2
University of Victoria301 – 400 374 370
University of Waterloo151 – 200 242 191
University of Windsor922
University of Western Ontario201 – 300 197 187
York University501 – 600 488 488

Opinion-based rankings

A number of international publications formulate their rankings using the weighted average of opinions gathered in surveys, including Quacquarelli Symonds's World University Ranking, The Times' Higher Education World University Ranking, and the U.S. News & World Report's Best Global University Ranking. The methodologies used in these rankings differ amongst one another, although most opinion-based rankings use opinion surveys to evaluate a university's rank. Those surveyed typically includes members of academia, and the business community. In addition to opinion surveys, the following publications also use a quantitative measure of a university's academic performance, similar to bibliometric-based rankings. However, in contrast to bibliometric rankings, the quantitative results are used alongside the qualitative results gathered from opinion surveys.
The following table includes Canadian universities, and their most recent global rank in the aforementioned publications :
University2021 QS World University Ranking2020 Times Higher Education World University Ranking2020 U.S. News & World Report Best Global University Ranking
University of Alberta119 136 139
University of British Columbia45 34 30
Brock University1093
University of Calgary246 201 – 250 178
Carleton University601 – 650 501 – 600 483
Concordia University477 601 – 800 671
Dalhousie University291 251 – 300 322
University of Guelph571 – 580 501 – 600 469
Université Laval420 251 – 300 315
Lakehead University601 – 800 1172
Laurentian University1266
University of Lethbridge1000+ 1358
University of Manitoba601 – 650 351 – 400 388
McGill University31 42 49
McMaster University144 72 126
Memorial University of Newfoundland701 – 750 501 – 600 657
Université de Montréal118 85 139
University of New Brunswick938
University of Northern British Columbia800 – 1000
University of Ontario Institute of Technology1022
University of Ottawa279 141 198
Université du Québec601 – 650 601 – 800
Queen's University at Kingston246 251 – 300 379
University of Regina601 – 800 1020
Ryerson University801 – 1000 601 – 800 904
University of Saskatchewan465 401 – 500 541
Université de Sherbrooke701–750 601 – 800 722
Simon Fraser University323 251 – 300 290
University of Toronto25 18 18
Trent University1270
University of Victoria370 401 – 500 262
University of Waterloo166 201 – 250 217
University of Western Ontario203 201 – 250 276
Wilfrid Laurier University1180
University of Windsor751 – 800 601 – 800 1018
York University531 – 540 401 – 500 416

Other metrics

is biannual university ranking produced by Cybermetrics Lab. The webometrics rankings use link analysis in an effort to evaluate the institution's overall web presence, and accessibility.

National rankings

Opinion-based rankings

A number of Canadian-based publications have ranked universities in Canada. The most prominent of which is Maclean's, a Toronto-based news magazine that has published an annual rankings of Canadian universities since 1991. In addition to the Maclean's ranking, there are other Canadian-based publications that also rank Canadian universities. In 2012, the Toronto-based Higher Education Strategy Associates published a study ranking Canadian Universities based on research strength. The study ranks Canadian Universities in two broad fields: Science and Engineering, and Social Sciences and Humanities.
A number of nationally based organizations have also crafted ranking using input from students and alumni. In 2014, the Toronto-based CampusRanking.ca began publication of its annual Canadian University and College Rankings, focusing on undergraduate education. The student-generated rankings asked over 40,000 undergraduate students and alumni to rate their schools. The survey was done across 135 schools in Canada. This data was used to develop a school matching quiz, MatchU, where students are matched to schools based on their personality type and school preferences. In February 2017, University Magazine, based in Windsor and Edmonton, started publishing its list of Top 10 universities in Canada. University Magazine surveyed undergraduate and graduate students at 96 Canadian universities, using this information to rank the universities

''Maclean's''

Maclean's publishes an annual ranking of Canadian universities, intended to measure a university's overall "undergraduate experience". Universities are split into three categories: medical/doctoral, comprehensive, and undergraduate. Maclean's evaluates post-secondary institutions on a number of performance factors, such as awards collected, resources, reputation, as well as student satisfaction surveys. In addition to the medical/doctoral, comprehensive, and undergraduate university categories, the magazine also produces rankings for that focus on individual academic fields.
The Maclean's ranking of "medical/doctoral universities" includes universities that are heavily research-based, and have a broad range of graduate-level programs. Universities placed within Maclean's comprehensive rankings includes universities with a significant degree of research activity and a wide range of programs at the undergraduate, graduate, and professional levels. Universities placed in their primarily undergraduate rankings features universities that are smaller in size and offer fewer graduate programs than universities found in other categories.
Maclean's medical/doctoral, comprehensive, and undergraduate annual rankings uses a number of performance factors to evaluate universities; with the magazine's reputational survey accounting for 15 per cent of the final score in the medical/doctoral, comprehensive, and undergraduate rankings. The magazine obtained the information for its reputation survey from university administrators and faculty, secondary school guidance counsellors, and members of the business community. In addition to using the information from the reputational survey for its medical/comprehensive/undergraduate university rankings, Maclean's also publishes the results of the survey in the form of a ranking.
Criticism
In September 2006, 26 Canadian universities, including several of Canada's largest universities such as the University of Alberta, University of British Columbia, Concordia University, Dalhousie University, McMaster University, Queen's University at Kingston, Université de Montréal, University of Ottawa, and the University of Toronto, refused to complete Maclean's questionnaire. In the same year, 11 Canadian universities issued a joint statement which described the rankings as "over-simplified and arbitrary," and criticized low response rates for its reputation surveys.
University of Alberta president Indira Samarasekera wrote that Maclean's initially filed a "Freedom of Information" request but that it was "too late" for the universities to respond. Samarasekera further stated, "Most of had already posted the data online, and we directed Maclean's staff to our website. In instances where the magazine staff couldn’t find data on our website, they chose to use the previous year's data." Beginning with its 2007 rankings, the magazine gathered information previously obtained from the questionnaires from third-party, or other official sources and reports.