B.C. university ranked among the top 40 schools in the world

A new global university ranking has just dropped, and UBC was named to the top 40, beating out some scholastic powerhouses.

The National Taiwan University (NTU) ranking evaluates universities based on their research output, number of published journal articles and citations, impact, and more.

This year, over 1,200 universities were included in NTU Rankings. The University of British Columbia ranked #32 overall, scoring 66.6 and climbing five spots from two years ago and one spot from a year prior.

Jeff Whyte/Shutterstock

“From groundbreaking discoveries to real-world impact, UBC continues to set the standard for research excellence on the world stage,” said the university in a social media post announcing its ranking.

UBC beat out such schools as Sorbonne University in France, the University of California, Berkeley in the United States, and the University of Tokyo in Japan.

However, it is not the highest-ranked Canadian school, as the University of Toronto was ranked fourth overall with a score of 80.3.

Spiroview Inc/Shutterstock

Another B.C. school did break into the top 500 in the ranking, with the University of Victoria slotted in at spot 470.

UVic had a score of 50.6, which is about two full points lower than what it received in 2025.

“This ranking system evaluates and ranks the scientific paper performance of the top 1,200 universities worldwide,” said NTU online.

“Three criteria represented by eight indicators were used to assess a university’s overall scientific paper performance: research productivity (accounting for 25 per cent of the score), research impact (35 per cent), and research excellence (40 per cent).”

Check out the complete NTU Rankings here.

Spiroview Inc/Shutterstock

Another recent report placed UBC among the best schools in the world, though it did see a slight drop compared to last year.

That is according to the 2026 World University Rankings from the Center for World University Rankings (CWUR), an annual academic ranking of global universities that assesses the quality of education, alum employment, faculty quality, and research performance, without relying on surveys or university data submissions.

UBC placed 49 out of 21,291 schools in the world, which lands it in the top 0.3 per cent globally.