U of T maintains its reputation as an elite academic institution in both the latest Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University Rankings 2018 and the Times Higher Education (THE) World Reputation Rankings 2017, both released this month.
Combining metrics such as Academic Reputation and Employer Reputation in its methodology, UK-based QS placed U of T as the best university in Canada and 31st globally, ranking higher than McGill and UBC.
“Many of the institutions that are ahead of us, in the United States especially, are private universities and have a very different model — they are not as accessible, have higher tuitions and have very large endowments,” Professor Vivek Goel, Vice President of Research and Innovation at U of T, told The Varsity. “We want to continue to strive to be absolutely excellent and move towards a higher ranking in all future surveys but not at the expense of the accessibility we provide to our students.”
In the same annual rankings last year, U of T ranked 32nd internationally and second best in Canada, behind McGill. “Movements of one or two or even three or four places in the rankings are the result of random, statistical variations in [annual] data,” Goel said. “Overall, we continue to remain in the top 25 in most rankings and do not tend to focus too much on those single-position type moves.”
According to THE World Reputation Rankings 2017, U of T has the 24th best reputation in the world.
“We certainly want to finish in the top 25 of the QS rankings and would like to be in the top 10 amongst the best public universities in the world,” Goel said about the university’s hope for future rankings.
