The World University Rankings 2025 just dropped and two Canadian schools have outperformed McGill University, securing higher spots in the global rankings.
On October 9, Times Higher Education released its annual list, highlighting the top universities from around the world based on metrics in five key areas: teaching, research environment, research quality, industry engagement and international outlook. This year, Times ranked more than 2,000 institutions from 115 countries and territories with 185 new entries compared to last year.
For the ninth year in a row, the U.K.’s University of Oxford snagged the number one spot. Meanwhile, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is now the highest-ranked university in the U.S., in second place globally — its best-ever performance.
But where do Canadian universities stand?
The University of Toronto topped the charts as Canada’s highest-ranking institution, coming in at 21st globally. With a robust student population of 80,107 and 29% of students hailing from abroad, U of T continues to excel in research and innovation.
Next is the University of British Columbia, which secured the 41st position worldwide. With 59,931 students, UBC stands out for its international population, featuring 34% international students.
In comparison, McGill University, ranked 45th globally with 30,051 students and 30% international representation. This is slightly higher than the past couple of years, as it ranked 49th in 2024 and 46th in 2023. McGill has consistently placed between 38th and 49th place since 2016.
This isn’t the first ranking in the past few months to show McGill falling behind other Canadian Universities. The 2024 National Taiwan University (NTU) World University Rankings released earlier this year placed McGill 57th, far behind both U of T and the UBC, which came in at fourth place and 37th place, respectively.
McGill did fare slightly better in the Times ranking when it came to particular subjects. Its law department ranked 29th, its clinical and health department came in 26th and the psychology department came 28th. However, U of T still outranked it in all three of those subjects, perhaps putting a definitive end to the debate on which of the two schools is better.
Here’s the complete top 10 of the best universities in the world, per Times Higher Education:
- University of Oxford — United Kingdom
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology — United States
- Harvard University — United States
- Princeton University — United States
- University of Cambridge — United Kingdom
- Stanford University — United States
- California Institute of Technology — United States
- University of California, Berkeley — United States
- Imperial College London — United Kingdom
- Yale University — United States
You can find the full ranking and methodology on the Times Higher Education website.
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