UofT CANADA'S LEADING UNIVERSITY IN TWO MAJOR GLOBAL RANKINGS

TORONTO, Sept. 16 /CNW/ - The University of Toronto's strong academic and research performance ranks among the best in the world - and is the best in Canada - in two prestigious international rankings released this week.

The Times Higher Education Rankings rated the University 17^th overall in its rankings, while the Higher Education Evaluation and Accreditation Council of Taiwan (HEEACT) ranked U of T 9^th overall, up from 11^th last year. In both rankings, U of T leads all Canadian universities.

Times Higher measures the institutional excellence of the world's top 200 universities in research, teaching and knowledge transfer, while HEEACT measures the research productivity, impact and excellence of published scientific papers of 500 universities around the world.

The Times Higher Education Rankings introduced changes to its methodology this year, partnering with Thomson Reuters, the world's leading research data specialist, to provide all the data and expert data analysis. Times Higher also introduced a new invitation-only reputational survey of more than 13,000 verified academics.

There were three Canadian universities in the top 50 in the THE's new ranking, and nine in the top 200 world-wide.

"I'm gratified that U of T could be the flag-bearer for Canada in this latest international comparison," said University of Toronto President David Naylor.  "Canada has many excellent universities and I fully expect to see more of them in the top 100 in the years to come."

Times Higher's new methodology places less emphasis on reputation and heritage than in previous years and gives more weight to hard measures of three core elements of a university's mission - research, teaching and knowledge transfer. Times Higher is also the only global ranking that includes a section dedicated to the teaching and learning environment - including the first-ever global survey of institutions' teaching reputation.

"The Times Higher Education rankings first appeared in 2004," says Naylor. "This year, they consulted widely, brought in new partners such as Thomson Reuters, and strengthened their measurement systems.  One important innovation was a survey of teaching and learning environments."    

HEEACT's methodology includes eight indicators and represents three different criteria of scientific performance: research productivity; research impact; and research excellence. Six field-specific and ten subject-specific rankings are also provided.

UofT's finish in the Times Higher and HEEACT rankings is comparable to its performance in other international rankings this year. Earlier, the Shanghai-based Academic Ranking of World Universities had U of T 27^th globally and first in Canada. QS ranked U of T 29^th globally, second to McGill in Canada; but U of T led Canada in every subject discipline in the QS reputational survey. As well, a new Western Australian ranking of High Impact Universities has just put Toronto 14^th world-wide and first in Canada.

"There are rankings of many different aspects of university performance these days", says Naylor.  "However, in measurement, consistency counts. With these new results from the Times Higher and HEEACT, Toronto has measured up consistently well. That's due to our great faculty, staff, and students, not to mention our outstanding alumni and thousands of generous supporters who have helped us in these tough economic times." 

For full results of the Times Higher Education Rankings 2010, go to:
http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/world-university-rankings/

For full results of the HEEACT Rankings 2010, go to:
http://ranking.heeact.edu.tw/en-us/2010/homepage/

For further information:

Laurie Stephens
University of Toronto
416-978-2105