Times Higher Education released its 2014 world university rankings on Oct. 1, with Queen’s placing in the 251-275 band of the world’s top universities.

A majority of Canada’s universities fell in this year’s ranking, especially relative to Asian universities, which have been moving up in recent years. Although Queen’s position fell from the 226-250 band in 2013, the university did see its scores in the ranking’s teaching and research categories increase this year.

“Queen’s greatest strength lies in providing a transformative student learning experience within a research intensive environment. But it is a difficult path toward continued excellence as a balanced academy, and one that does not necessarily help us in international rankings,” says Daniel Woolf, Principal and Vice-Chancellor. “Nevertheless we continue to punch above our weight when it comes to research and the recent announcement of Gilles Gerbier as our first Canada Excellence Research Chair is a demonstration of Queen’s excellence, in this case in astrophysics, at both a national and global level.”

The Times Higher Education ranking uses surveys to measure institutional prestige in both research and teaching, as well as collected data to measure indicators such as research output, citations, research income, teaching quality and international orientation.

"We continue to punch above our weight when it comes to research and the recent announcement of Gilles Gerbier as our first Canada Excellence Research Chair is a demonstration of Queen’s excellence, in this case in astrophysics, at both a national and global level.”

- Daniel Woolf, Principal and Vice-Chancellor

Fluctuations in the rankings are to be expected from year to year. Other recent international rankings released include the Shanghai Jiao Tong academic ranking of world universities (ARWU), which was released on Aug. 15 and saw Queen’s maintain its position within the 201-300 range. The QS world university rankings were announced Sept. 16 and saw Queen’s move up two positions to 187th globally.

“Each ranking uses a different methodology, and no single ranking captures the full range of Queen’s strengths, particularly the quality of our student learning experience,” says Kathy O’Brien, Associate Vice-Principal (International).

Expanding the university’s international reach is a strategic priority for Queen’s and a key driver in its strategic framework. Queen’s renewed international recruitment efforts are already showing results, with international students making up five per cent of this year’s incoming class.