Canadian universities slip in world reputation rankings

London-based Times Higher Education’s third annual World Reputation Rankings were released today and there are three Canadian schools on the top 100 list. They are the same three schools as last year, but two of them are ranked lower.

The University of British Columbia and McGill University were tied for 25th in 2012 but fell to a 31st place tie in 2013. The University of Toronto maintained its spot at 16th on the list.

Of the top 21 schools, 14 are in the United States and four are in the United Kingdom. Harvard is first, followed by MIT, Cambridge and Oxford.

The big story is Australia, with six schools in the top 100—twice as many as Canada despite a smaller population. Germany, Japan and the Netherlands each have five, France has four and Sweden and Hong Kong have three each.

The ranking is based on an invitation-only survey of 16,639 senior researchers from 144 countries. Phil Baty, the rankings editor, pointed out in a press release that today’s reputation ranking is based purely on the subjective judgement of senior researchers and lecturers, unlike the annual Times Higher Education World University Rankings, which uses 13 mostly objective indicators.

In 2011 the University of Waterloo placed in the top 100. It did not make this year’s list.

The top three universities in Canada, according to this ranking, are also consistently the top three in the Medical Doctoral category of the Maclean’s University Rankings.