McGill top Canadian school in annual world ranking

McGill University once again took top spot among Canadian universities in the 2006 Times Higher Education Supplement’s World University Rankings.

The Canadian school took 21st spot in the London-based publication that rates the world’s top 200 institutions. It was in 25th position in the 2005 rankings. A McGill news report quotes the ranking report as saying, “McGill’s breadth and international reach makes it the most visible of Canada’s institutions.”

Not far behind McGill was the University of Toronto in 27th place while the University of British Columbia was ranked 50th. At the top of the ranking were Harvard, Oxford and Cambridge, in that order. Other top-rated universities included the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford, the University of California at Berkley, Yale, Princeton and France’s Ecole Polytechnique.

The scores used to rank the universities are based largely on opinion surveys sent to research-active academics. According to information from University Metrics, that peer review accounts for 40 per cent of the overall score. Faculty/student ratios count for 20 per cent, as does the number of citations for academic papers generated by each staff member. Recruiter reviews make up 10 per cent of scores while the percentage of international staff and students each represent five percent.