Dal moves up in Times Higher Education international rankings

Last month, Dalhousie improved its position in the QS World University Rankings, and now the university has also moved up the charts on another prominent international ranking.

The 2014 edition of the Times Higher Education (THE) rankings, one of the most well-known global university rankings, has Dalhousie listed between 226-250. (The publication ranks universities in groups of 25 between 200 and 300.) For the previous two years, Dal had been listed at 251-275.

While many other universities in Canada's U15 group of leading research institutions dropped in this year’s THE rankings, Dalhousie improved in each of the five criteria the rankings consider: teaching, international outlook, industry income, research and citations. (THE's website outlines the survey's methodology and its 13 indicators.)

Dal scored particularly well in citations, industry income and "international outlook." The university leapt a full 12 points higher in the latter category, which considers the ratio of international students to domestic students, the ratio of international staff to domestic staff, and the proportion of research publications with international co-authors.

Learn more: Dal's international impact

The THE rankings are one of three international rankings that Dal looks at most closely. The other two are the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) and the Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University Rankings, in which Dal moved from 244 to 235 this year.

Speaking about the QS rankings last month, Dal President Richard Florizone noted that while rankings are imperfect in their methodologies, they're still a key part of the decision-making process for many governments and international students. That's why 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.

Dalhousie ranked in the top 200 of the Times Higher Education rankings in 2010. That year, Dal scored better in the teaching and research categories in part thanks to stronger results in THE’s reputation survey of 10,000 scholars worldwide. One of the notes in the 100 Days of Listening report was that Dal’s results in reputation surveys such as these often lag behind actual measures of academic output (such as the number of academic citations).

“Based on academic performance, Dalhousie is absolutely a top 200 global university,” said Dr. Florizone last month, speaking to rankings in general. “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.