Waterloo: Ranked 267th in THE World University Ranking

This year’s university rankings compiled by different institutions have been published and surprisingly, University of Waterloo did not make it to the Top 200 in Times Higher Education (THE) World University Ranking. This is the first year that Times Higher Education is using a new methodology and data compiled by Thomson Reuters; where as in previous years, QS was the data supplier for the ranking. The new methodology incorporates 13 separate indicators (up from just 6 in the previous years) to determine the best universities.

Believing that University of Waterloo is a good university, I considered the possibility that University of Waterloo did not participate in the ranking exercise. An in depth research and communication with Phil Baty, Deputy Editor of Times Higher Education Magazine, confirmed that Waterloo did participate, but unfortunately did not make the Top 200 list. An iPhone application that could be downloaded from THE website allows readers to access data on 400 institutions. Currently, University of Waterloo is ranked at 267^th on the list.

The breakdown of the data submitted by the universities is confidential and therefore, it cannot be seen where the University of Waterloo is lacking in the new ranking indicators. THE’s former partner in World University Ranking, QS, has also published their own version of World Top Universities. In their list, University of Waterloo ranked 145^th, significantly higher than the rank published by THE. University of Waterloo ranked 39^th in Top Universities in Engineering and Technology compiled by QS, which is great news for us, proud engineering students of Waterloo. Different parameters and methodology might have influenced the significant difference in rank, but in all 3 lists, Waterloo has dropped in ranking from previous years.

The good news about University of Waterloo is that we remain third in Maclean’s “comprehensive” universities ranking for Canadian universities. Waterloo even finished first in the social science and humanities grant for this year. In addition, do not forget that we are still the most innovative university in Canada for 19 years in a row. While scoring high in World University Rankings is good for any university, I still think that University of Waterloo has the greatest engineering program. Our students have the unique mix of work experience, professionalism, and hands-on engineering knowledge that sets them apart.