A couple weeks ago, the QS Top Universities site released their World University rankings for the 2015/2016 school year. Many McGill students can remember being bombarded with multiple status updates, courtesy of their friends, proclaiming “We’re number 1!”, “Back on top like we’re supposed to be”, or some sort of comparison to University of Toronto. According to the QS World University rankings, McGill ranks 24th in the world and 1st in Canada, scoring high marks for Academic Reputation, Employer Reputation, and International Students.
While the QS World Rankings is one of the most well-established systems used to rank universities, it is not the only one. Read on to find out more about different resources used to rank universities on an international and national level, and find out how McGill compares!
- The Times Higher Education World University Rankings:
Each school is scored on a scale of 0-100 and then ranked accordingly. Scores are given out using weighted criteria, such as teaching, industry income, research, etc. There are two main rankings that the Times Higher Education organization produces- World University Rankings and World Reputation Rankings. In overall rankings, McGill is 39th, with its highest scores being in the categories of international outlook and citations. McGill is also ranked 35th in World Reputation Rankings.
- Center for World University Rankings:
According to their website, this organization is the only one that measures the quality of education, prestige of faculty members, and quality of research”without relying on surveys and university data submissions.” They use eight different weighted criteria to rank the world’s top thousand universities, with most of the emphasis being placed on quality of education, alumni employment, and quality of faculty. McGill holds 42nd place worldwide, as well as 2nd place in the national rank. Within its overall ranking, McGill has the strongest showing in the areas of quality of education, which measures the number of alumni who have their own prestigious international awards, relative to its size(#34) and publications, according to the number of research papers appearing in major journals (#33).
- Academic Ranking of World Universities:
This method of rankings is dependent on the amount of Nobel Laureates, Fields Medalists, highly cited researchers, or published papers in the fields of science or social science. McGill is ranked 64th, having moved up 3 spots from last year. The site also offers a comprehensive breakdown of McGill’s performance in each subject area, with our highest scoring subject areas being Economics/Business, and Computer Science.
- Parchment:
This is one that not many people have heard of, as it uses quite a different methodology than most other sites. Rather than measuring academic performance or quality of education and teaching, Parchment bases its rankings on the school a student chooses to attend if they are given multiple offers. Points are taken from schools that a student applied to but didn’t enroll in and points are given to the school that the student ended up choosing. McGill ranks 20th overall. Interestingly enough, Harvard, the school that usually ranks in the top 3 for most organizations, ranks 41st with Parchment.
- LinkedIn:
LinkedIn has a very interesting system for ranking universities. It uses data from its users to rank universities on a national basis, comparing employability in different fields. It also shows you a detailed breakdown of the top fields that people from each university go into, as well as top employers of alumni. For undergraduates, McGill is 1st nationwide for Accounting Professionals, 2nd for Investment Bankers, and 3rd for Software Developers.
While no two ranking systems are similar, one thing is true. No matter which one you consult: McGill has certainly earned its place among the world’s top universities.
Sources:
https://www.timeshighereducation.com/world-university-rankings/mcgill-un…
http://www.topuniversities.com/universities/mcgill-university#wur
http://cwur.org/2015/McGill-University.html
http://www.shanghairanking.com/World-University-Rankings/McGill-Universi…
https://www.linkedin.com/edu/school?id=10890&trk=edu-up-nav-menu-home
http://www.parchment.com/c/college/college-rankings.php?page=1&perPage=2…
https://www.google.ca/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&ved=&ur…
http://ww1.prweb.com/prfiles/2015/03/25/12609975/Parchment%20Logo.jpg
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/01/LinkedIn_Logo….