Upward bound: Dal improves in QS World University Rankings

Each year, Quacquarelli Symonds, a higher education and career information specialist group, ranks the world’s top universities — and once again Dalhousie is among them.

In fact, Dal’s status in the QS World University Rankings is improving, with the university jumping nine places this year. Dalhousie moved from 244 to 235, ranked 13th in Canada.

The growth reflects upward movement in a number of key areas the rankings consider, including academic reputation, the number of international faculty and the number of international students.

This year’s World University Rankings include what QS considers to be the world’s top 863 universities, examining more than 3,000 schools for inclusion. The rankings are based on four pillars — research, teaching, employability and internationalization — with a methodology based around six indicators: academic reputation (40%), employer reputation (10%), faculty-student ratio (20%), citations per faculty (20%), international students (5%) and international faculty (5%)

Global reputation

While there are countless university rankings out there, the QS is one of three international rankings that Dalhousie looks at closely, alongside the Times Higher Education (THE) rankings and the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU).

“Rankings often invite controversy or debate, and are imperfect in their methodologies, but we know for many governments and international students they absolutely drive decision-making,” says Dal President Richard Florizone, responding to the QS rankings. “As we look to expand Dalhousie’s global reach and impact, rankings like these can’t be ignored.”

One of the strategic priorities in Inspiration and Impact: Dalhousie Strategic Direction 2014-2018 is to develop a plan to secure and maintain top 200 status in major international rankings. In the 100 Days of Listening report, it was noted that, in many rankings, perceptions of Dal’s performance (surveys of reputation) lag the university’s actual performance (for example, citations per faculty).

“Based on academic performance, Dalhousie is absolutely a top 200 global university,” says Dr. Florizone. “We should strive to be recognized as one.”

Dalhousie’s Office of Institutional Analysis and Research maintains ongoing fact sheets about Dal’s performance in international rankings. You can read them here.