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U of C among the top 10 best Canadian Universities

By Luis Armando Sanchez Diaz, April 20 2021—

The Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University Rankings were recently released and notably the University of Calgary ranked high in five subjects as well as making it into the top 10 list of the best Canadian post-secondary institutions. 

The QS TopUniversities webpage details that they include the “top 1,000 universities from around the world, covering 80 different locations,” and noted that in this year’s ranking around 47 new institutions were added to their “top 1,000” list, along with having “evaluated and considered for inclusion,” more than 5,500 universities. 

The organization’s methodology is based on the evaluation of six different categories that according to QS, “effectively capture university performance,” each of them having an individual weight that jointly sum 100 per cent. 

The assessed groups are Academic Reputation (40 per cent), Employer Reputation (10 per cent), Faculty/Student Ratio (20 per cent), Citations per Faculty (20 per cent), International Faculty Ratio (5 per cent) and International Student Ratio (5 per cent). 

When it comes to U of C’s score, YYC’s largest post-secondary institution racked up 37.8 per cent, tied with Queen’s University at Kingston, Ontario — and placing both institutions at the 246 global spot. Securing the place of the two universities among the top 250 best universities in the world.

Nationally, both educational institutions secured the ninth spot, while the top three universities were the University of Toronto, McGill University and the University of British Columbia respectively, landing among the top 50 worldwide. It is worth noting that the U of C is the second-best ranked university in the prairies and the third in Western Canada. 

The year 2020 has been the worst year of performance by the U of C at the QS rankings and has been steadily decreasing since 2016, when it ranked at 196. However, it was 2014 when UCalgary reached its highest ranking (171) as available data show.

According to UCalgary News, the U of C also performed high in various subjects, having five subjects among the top 50 worldwide — Sports-Related subjects (25), Veterinary Science (37), Hospitality and Leisure Management (44), Petroleum Engineering (46) and Nursing (50). In addition, U of C got a total of ten subjects in the 100 list, while many of them improved by 32 per cent in this year’s list. 

In a statement provided to UCalgary News by Ed McCauley, president of the University of Calgary, it was noted that the U of C continues to work on making sure that students receive the support they need in order to become successful in their studies at one of Canada’s most entrepreneurial post-secondary institutions.

“We work hard to ensure the students who chose the University of Calgary have unique opportunities for hands-on learning and research. Our faculty are world-class scholars who are committed to student success. And, as a community, we are known as an inclusive environment where learners feel supported in their academic journey,” he said. 

For more information on the ranking that specific subjects at U of C had in the QS World University Rankings, visit the university’s profile here. If you want to know about other universities and their standing in the global 2021 ranking, click here.



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