International Rankings Explained (2017)

U of T is often in the news because of its international rankings, but how are the rankings produced and how does U of T compare?

Rankings should be considered as only one measure of our excellence; they do not tell the full story of the university’s success. Rankings use a common set of data and combine different indicators in an arbitrary way that does not reflect the mission of the university or the needs of the rankings reader. All international rankings primarily use data based on the research performance of the university. Other important metrics like the quality of teaching or other aspects of the university’s mission have little to no impact on the rankings results.

How do we rank?
There are many rankings that are of relevance to U of T, but the following are the five major international rankings that we track:

Times Higher Education (THE) – World University Rankings
QS – World University Rankings
Shanghai Ranking – Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU)
National Taiwan University (NTU) – Performance Ranking of Scientific Papers for World Universities
U.S. News & World Report (U.S. News) – Best Global Universities

The following table shows the results of the top 25 international institutions ordered by their average performance across the five major rankings in 2017. U of T is ranked #1 in Canada for all five of the rankings, and is frequently ranked among the top 10 public universities in the world (NTU=1; U.S. News=10; THE=9; ARWU=10).

UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO’S GLOBAL UNIVERSITY RANKINGS RESULTS (2017)

The international rankings also rank universities across broad disciplinary fields. The following tables show our performance in those rankings. U of T was the only Canadian university and only one of three universities in the world (along with Columbia and Stanford) to be ranked in the top 50 of every subject of the THE-Subject rankings. The University also performs well in the subject rankings from other ranking organizations demonstrating our multidisciplinary excellence.

UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO’S TIMES HIGHER EDUCATION SUBJECT RANKINGS RESULTS (2017)

THE – Subject	Global Rank	Rank in Canada	Rank Among Public Universities
Arts & Humanities	15	1	7
Education	11	1	8
Law	10	1	5
Psychology	13	2	7
Business & Economics	22	2	12
Clinical, Pre-Clinical & Health	19	1	11
Computer Science	22	1	14
Engineering & Technology	29	1	21
Life Sciences	22	2	10
Physical Sciences	29	1	20
Social Sciences	27	1	15

UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO’S QS FIELD RANKINGS RESULTS (2017)

QS – Field	Global Rank	Rank in Canada	Rank Among Public Universities
Arts & Humanities	18	1	12
Engineering & Technology	34	1	29
Life Sciences & Medicine	15	1	10
Natural Sciences	22	1	16
Social Sciences	30	1	21

UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO’S ARWU FIELD RANKINGS RESULTS (2016)

ARWU – Field	Global Rank	Rank in Canada	Rank Among Public Universities
Natural Sciences and Mathematics	51-75	Joint 1st	N/A
Engineering/Technology and Computer Science	50	1	42
Life and Agriculture Sciences	38	2	27
Clinical Medicine and Pharmacy	31	1	19
Social Sciences	20	1	8

UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO’S NTU FIELD RANKINGS RESULTS (2017)

NTU – Field	Global Rank	Rank in Canada	Rank Among Public Universities
Agriculture	49	4	45
Clinical Medicine	3	1	1
Engineering	50	1	45
Life Sciences	8	1	4
Natural Sciences	32	1	24
Social Sciences	6	1	3

Ranking organizations also provide rankings for narrow subject areas. Highlights include:

• University of Toronto was ranked in the top 10 for 6 of the 46 QS subject areas and was ranked 1^st in Canada in 32 subjects.
• University of Toronto was ranked in the top 25 in 25 (of 52) different subject areas of the Shanghai Ranking’s Global Ranking of Academic Subjects; only four other universities achieved this distinction (Harvard, Stanford, Berkeley, and MIT).
• University of Toronto was ranked in the top 50 for 8 of 14 subjects, and ranked number 4 for Pharmacology & Toxicology.
• University of Toronto was ranked in the top 10 for 4 subjects and in the top 25 for 18 out of 22 subjects.

How does U of T use ranking results?
The University uses ranking results as a demonstration of our excellence in research, both locally and globally. Ranking results support the University’s efforts to tell our story when it comes to:

• Recruitment of faculty and students
• Advancement opportunities
• Advocacy with government officials

Why are there different results among the major rankings?
The results vary depending on the metrics included in each of the rankings and on the differing weights assigned to the indicators. Additionally, the size of the university has more significance in some rankings than others.

The following chart maps the metrics employed by each ranking into seven categories to provide a comparison of the similarities and differences among the methodologies:

Where do the ranking organizations get their data?
Each ranking is different, but as can be seen in the above chart, a significant proportion of each ranking is based on publication and citation data which is provided by either Elsevier’s Scopus or Clarivate Analytics’ Web of Science depending on the ranking. Many of the rankings utilize reputation survey data, where the survey asks participants to nominate which universities they consider to be the best in their field. QS and THE also acquire data from universities directly (see below for more details). ARWU also acquires data from various public sources such as the list of Nobel Prize winners.

What data is provided by the University to the ranking organizations?
The majority of data underlying the ranking results is from third party data sources, however for THE and QS, some information is provided by the universities. Examples include: enrolment, degrees awarded, proportion of staff and students that are international, and financial information. The University works carefully with each organization to fulfill the data requirements accurately.

How do faculty and staff members participate in rankings?
QS, THE, and U.S. News use data from reputation surveys of academics, and you may receive an invitation to participate in one of the surveys. Although survey participants typically cannot select their own institution, academics at other institutions may select U of T, and fostering positive relationships with our collaborators may help improve our ranking position. Publishing highly cited papers can be impactful in many ways, including having a positive effect on rankings outcomes. Making sure that each paper is clearly affiliated with the University of Toronto will help the ranking organizations include as many of our research outputs as possible.

Are there other international rankings of importance?
There are many rankings published every year, and there are constantly new ones being introduced. Many contain valuable information, but U of T focuses on the five major ones mentioned above. However, there are several mission focused rankings that we also monitor:

• THE’s Reputation Rankings: U of T was ranked 1^st in Canada and 24^th in the world.
• THE’s Global Employability Ranking: U of T was ranked 1^st in Canada and 13^th in the world.
• QS’s Graduate Employability Rankings: U of T was ranked 1^st in Canada and 15^th in the world.
• Reuters’ Top 100 the World’s Most Innovative Universities: U of T was ranked 1^st in Canada and 46^th in the world.