U of T ranked 1st in Canada, 26th globally by ShanghaiRanking Consultancy

Aug 21, 2024

The research-focused 2024-2025 Best Global Universities Rankings placed U of T 10th among public universities worldwide and fifth among public institutions in North America

Students in a lounge area next to a bit window
Photo by Lisa Sakulensky.

The University of Toronto is ranked first in Canada and 26th globally in the latest edition of ShanghaiRanking Consultancy’s worldwide university ranking.

Among public universities, U of T placed sixth in North America and 15th overall in the 2024 Academic Ranking of World Universities, released last week. The ranking’s creators evaluated more than 2,500 universities to determine the 1,000 included in this year’s publication.

The Shanghai ranking comes on the heels of U of T’s strong performance in two other rankings this year: U.S. News & World Report’s Best Global Universities Rankings and the QS World University Rankings, which respectively ranked U of T 17th and 25­th overall.

“These results are a testament to the University of Toronto’s global reputation for scholarly excellence and high quality, impactful research across a wide range of disciplines,” said Trevor Young, U of T’s vice-president and provost. 

“The credit goes to our entire academic and research community and their commitment to furthering knowledge, while working tirelessly to address some of the most complex global challenges of our time.”

Based on research and academic performance

The Academic Ranking of World Universities is based on six weighted measures of research and academic performance collected from third-party sources. They include: the number of alumni and faculty winning Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals; the number of highly cited researchers in 21 broad subject categories; the number of papers published in the prestigious journals Nature and Science; articles cited in major science and social sciences citation indices; and each institution’s per capita academic performance across all faculty members.

U of T, which ranked 24th in the 2023 edition of the ranking, was joined by two other Canadian universities in the top 100: the University of British Columbia (47th) and McGill University (74th). 

The five highest ranked universities were Harvard University, Stanford University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), University of Cambridge and the University of California, Berkeley. 

Overall, U of T continues to be the highest-ranked Canadian university and one of the top-ranked public universities in the five most closely watched international rankings: Times Higher Education’s World University Rankings, QS World University Rankings, ShanghaiRanking Consultancy’s Academic Ranking of World Universities, U.S. News & World Report’s Best Global Universities and National Taiwan University World University Rankings.

By Rahul Kalvapelle