A Metro Vancouver university has been named the second-best in Canada.
Canadian universities were well represented in this year’s world university rankings, including UBC, which remains in the same spot as last year.
The rankings are from Times Higher Education (THE), a British magazine specializing in higher education issues.
UBC ranked 41st in last year’s list, which is the same spot it ranks in this year. That’s 20 spots behind Canada’s highest-ranked university, the University of Toronto. Considering that over 2,000 universities appear in this year’s edition of the university leaderboard, UBC did pretty well, as it is technically the second-best university in Canada, according to THE.
18 performance indicators are used to determine the positioning of each university on the list. Those indicators include things like the number of students per staff, international students, and female-to-male ratio.
“More than 40% of Canada’s universities have declined since last year,” the report suggests.
Phil Baty, chief global officer of THE, said, “Canada has some of the world’s very best universities, with three in the top 50 and eight in the top 200. However, the continued fall of a significant number of Canadian universities is a cause for concern.”
He added what that reality represents for the country overall.
“Our data sends out a warning signal that there’s a risk of a vicious circle here — with Canada losing its competitive edge as a magnet for international talent and collaborations.”
Simon Fraser University is among the Canadian universities that saw a decline. Last year, SFU ranked between 251 and 300, and this year, it ranks between 301 and 350. The University of Northern British Columbia, located in Prince George, also declined. The university ranked between 801 and 1,000 last year and 1,001 and 1,200 this year.
The University of Oxford in the UK took the top spot for a record ninth consecutive year.