Times Higher Education (THE) has released the 2026 edition of World University Rankings, and a few notable B.C. universities got a hat tip in their direction.
It may not come as a surprise that the University of British Columbia (UBC) scored very high, ranking 45th in the world and being named the third-best university in Canada, trailing only McGill University (#41) and the University of Toronto (#21). The University of Toronto is ranked as the top Canadian university by THE.
UBC was also the 23rd best in North America, but its ranking this year marks a slight decline compared to last year, when it ranked 41st.
“Now in its 14th year, the 2025 edition of the ranking is based on six performance indicators for the first time, to provide a more robust assessment of reputation and reflect the fact that the subject of reputation is gaining a wider audience among the academic community,” THE says.
THE looks at several metrics, each scored out of 100, to determine where each university lands. The metrics include teaching, research environment, research quality, industry, and international outlook. UBC scored highly on some of these metrics, but not as highly in others.
How UBC was scored:
- Teaching: 64.1
- Research Environment: 73.9
- Research Quality: 88.6
- Industry: 77.4
- International Outlook: 93.5
- Overall: 77
B.C.’s other notable universities didn’t land as high as UBC.
For example, Simon Fraser University (SFU) ranked 301-351 and had the following scores:
- Teaching: 26.9
- Research Environment: 35.6
- Research Quality: 79.7
- Industry: 83.5
- International Outlook: 90.7
- Overall: 51.6-54.2
The University of Victoria ranked 301-350 and had the following scores:
- Teaching: 30.2
- Research Environment: 37.1
- Research Quality: 82.9
- Industry: 66.8
- International Outlook: 83.6
- Overall: 51.6-54.2
One other B.C. university, the University of Northern British Columbia (UNBC), was also mentioned, ranking 1201-1500 with an overall score of 27.3-32.
THE also lets you rank universities by subject. For Arts and Humanities, UBC ranked 53rd. It performed higher for business and economics (#29). UBC’s best subject was psychology, for which it ranked 17th globally. THE also has a reputation ranking, and UBC ranked 34th.
Oxford University remained in first place for the 10th consecutive year, followed by MIT in second place and Princeton University in third.
Earlier this year, UBC ranked 53rd on ShanghaiRanking’s Academic Ranking of World Universities.