Rankings
Numerous organizations annually rank post-secondary institutions using diverse criteria, including international and national standings and specific subject areas. Their assessments and interpretation of how universities are performing inform our continuous improvement efforts at the University of Saskatchewan. We primarily focus on three international and two national rankings.
Shanghai Ranking Consultancy, an organization focusing on higher education, annually publishes an institutional ranking called The Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU). In total, over 2,500 universities are ranked and the top 1,000 are published. The University of Saskatchewan is typically positioned within the top fifth of all universities ranked.
Summary of institutional ranking results:
Subject Rankings
Shanghai Ranking Consultancy annually publishes a Global Ranking of Academic Subjects (GRAS) each summer, where more than 1,900 institutions from about 104 countries are ranked across 55 subjects in five broad discipline areas.
Summary of subject ranking results:
Official website: www.shanghairanking.com
Quacquarelli Symonds, a British company specializing in education and study abroad services, releases their ranking of universities in the world on an annual basis. They evaluate over 5,600 universities globally and publish rankings for over 1,500 institutions. The University of Saskatchewan is currently positioned near the top fifth of all universities ranked.
Summary of institutional ranking results:
Sustainability Rankings
QS publishes an annual ranking of universities to determine who is leading the way in social and environmental sustainability. The most recent ranking release features over 1,400 universities, and it includes an overall rank in addition to rankings within each of three categories and nine performance lenses.
Summary of sustainability ranking results:
Subject Rankings
QS publishes a World University Rankings by Subject, typically near the end of the first calendar quarter. Overall, close to 1,600 institutions are ranked across 55 subjects in five broad subject areas.
Summary of subject ranking results:
Official website: www.topuniversities.com/qs-world-university-rankings
Times Higher Education is a weekly British magazine that reports specifically on news and issues related to higher education. As part of this, they produce an annual ranking of over 1,900 universities from across the world. The University of Saskatchewan is currently situated within the top 400 universities ranked.
Summary of institutional ranking results:
Impact Rankings
THE evaluates over 2,150 universities and publishes an annual ranking based on their performance against the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). An overall global ranking is published along with specific rankings in each of the 17 SDGs.
Summary of impact ranking results:
Subject Rankings
THE publishes an annual ranking of subjects, typically later in the calendar year, ranking institutions in 11 broader subject areas.
Summary of subject ranking results:
Official website: www.timeshighereducation.com/world-university-rankings
Maclean’s, a Canadian news magazine, provides an annual release of 50 universities in Canada separated into three categories: medical/doctoral, comprehensive, and primarily undergraduate. Because of its comprehensive set of health science programs (including medicine, veterinary medicine, dentistry, pharmacy and nutrition, rehabilitation science, public health, physical therapy, and nursing), the University of Saskatchewan is ranked in the medical/doctoral category.
Summary of institutional ranking results:
Program Rankings
Maclean’s releases an annual ranking of programs, typically in the Fall, which assess research and reputation in five popular areas in the sciences and social sciences.
Summary of program ranking results:
Official website: education.macleans.ca/rankings
Research Infosource, a company that specializes in providing research and development intelligence, produces an annual ranking of the top 50 research universities in Canada. The University of Saskatchewan is currently ranked 11th in this list Summary of results:
Official website: researchinfosource.com/top50_univ.php
Benchmarking
External data sources and initiatives that support university benchmarking. There are a number of external reporting and data sharing initiatives that USask is involved in that provide context on the post-secondary landscape and how our activities compare to other institutions within that landscape.
As a member of the U15 group of Canada’s leading research-intensive universities, the University of Saskatchewan participates in a data sharing arrangement whereby data is shared, collated, and used to provide analysis and insight about higher education and research policy development. The data exchange creates and maintains the resources necessary to construct inter-institutional and inter-jurisdictional comparisons to support local and collective policy decisions. Areas of focus include:
- Enrolment and Degrees
- Executive Compensation
- Faculty Salary/Counts (based on Statistics Canada UCASS – the University and College Academic Staff System)
- Graduate Student Experience (based on CGPSS – the Canadian Graduate and Professional Student Survey)
- Graduate Student Financial Support
- Graduate Time to Completion
- Tuition and Fees
- Undergraduate Student Retention (based on CSRDE – the Consortium of Student Retention Data Exchange)
- Undergraduate Student Experience (based on NSSE – the National Survey of Student Engagement)
Sharing and confidentiality of U15 datasets are governed by strict data sharing protocols. As such, the Assessment and Analytics team pays particular attention to ensuring that we comply with these protocols while leveraging this information in our planning and assessment activities.
The University of Saskatchewan is involved in an initiative with the Ministry of Advanced Education other post-secondary institutions in Saskatchewan to collect, analyze and report on sector-wide post-secondary data. This work consists of defining and reporting on indicators of activity to provide insight into the higher education landscape in Saskatchewan.
Universities Canada collects and reports on various areas of post-secondary activities in Canada. This includes the annual collection and dissemination of datasets pertaining to university enrolments and tuition fees. Enrolment numbers are based on the Fall (September-October) time period and provides insight on the number of students attending each institution. The University of Saskatchewan participates in this exercise on an annual basis.
Through the Post-Secondary Student Information System (PSIS), Statistics Canada collects and provides detailed information on enrolments and graduates of Canadian public post-secondary institutions on an annual basis in order to meet policy and planning needs in the field of post-secondary education. Similar to Universities Canada enrolment data, PSIS numbers are based on Fall enrolments and are made available by Statistics Canada annually. Statistics Canada also collects information to provide insight on tuition and living accommodation fees within post-secondary institutions in Canada. The University of Saskatchewan submits data annually for inclusion in the datasets released by Statistics Canada.
CAUBO is a non-profit professional organization that represents administrative and financial activities at over 100 universities and affiliated colleges in Canada. Part of their mandate involves collecting and provisioning annual reports on financial activities of member institutions. Their Financial Information of Universities and Colleges (FIUC) is released annually as the only national source of comparable financial information for Canadian universities. The data is based on an annual return submitted by each institution. The University of Saskatchewan’s submission is prepared annually by the Controller’s Office.
More information
For more information on topics relating to university rankings, please contact the Assessment and Analytics team.