Western joined a larger North American trend of universities remaining stagnant within the Times Higher Education magazine’s World University Rankings, according to 2018 numbers released Tuesday. Western remained ranked No. 201-250 among the world’s top universities, according to the magazine. (Only ranges, no specific rankings are given beyond No. 200 on the list).
The University of Toronto was the highest ranking Canadian institution at No. 22, same as last year. U of T led a trend of Top 100 Canadian institutions remaining relatively in place year-to-year, with one lone exception. After U of T, the University of British Columbia (No. 34), McGill University (No. 42) and McMaster University (No. 78) were the only Canadian schools to crack the Top 100. McMaster jumped from No. 113 last year.
The remaining Canadian institutions in the Top 250 included, University of Montreal (No. 108), University of Alberta (No. 119), as well as University of Calgary, University of Ottawa, University of Waterloo and Western (all ranked No. 201-250).
The Times Higher Education rankings use five main indicators – teaching, research, citations, industry income and international outlook. Western saw its year-to-year scores rise in teaching, research, industry income and international outlook. Only its citations declined.
Overall, the ranking lightly shuffled the Top 10 to keep things newsworthy.
Two U.K. institutions lead our ranking of the best universities for the first time in its history, with the University of Oxford holding on to the No. 1 spot for the second year in a row, while Cambridge University rose to second place. The California Institute of Technology, Stanford University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Harvard University, Princeton University, Imperial College London, University of Chicago, ETH Zurich – Swiss Federal Institute of Technology and University of Pennsylvania rounded out the Top 10.