York University has ranked among the top four universities in Canada and in the top 100 universities in the world in the Social Sciences and Arts & Humanities categories in the 2014 Times Higher Education World University Rankings published earlier this month.
"The dramatic overall improvement in York's ranking is a result of the tremendous effort of individuals across the York community," says York University President and Vice-Chancellor Mamdouh Shoukri. "I am particularly pleased to see that the amount and influence of research being done at York is helping to set us on a very positive trajectory in the rankings."
The Times Higher Education World University Rankings rate the top 400 universities in the world. In the Social Sciences category, York University was one of only four Canadian universities to make the top rankings and was 95th in the world. In the Arts & Humanities category, York University was again one of only four Canadian universities to make the top rankings and was 97th in the world.
"Our researchers are recognized as being among the top in the world. That expertise in research and scholarship fuels our teaching, with faculty bringing their innovative ideas directly into the classroom," says Martin Singer, dean of the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies. "We've always known that a liberal arts degree from York is an education of the highest quality. I am delighted that we are now seeing our strengths recognized so clearly on the international stage."
In the overall global ranking, York University showed the most improvement of the 18 Canadian universities which made the world’s top 400. For 2014, York was ranked 234, up 57 places from its previous ranking of 291 in 2013. The move positions the University among the top 250 universities in the world.
The rankings judge universities across their core missions of teaching, research, knowledge transfer and international outlook. There are 13 performance indicators used.
“The overall ranking score for each institution in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings is a weighted total of five sub scores -- teaching, international outlook, industry outlook-innovation, research amount and research influence,” explains Richard Smith, acting director, Office of Institutional Planning and Analysis.
“York University’s overall score increased from 37.4 last year to 43.0 this year, or an improvement of 5.6. Research amount and research impact each contributed 2.2 of the increase (4.4 in total), teaching contributed 1.0 and international outlook contributed 0.3,” says Smith. “Only industry income showed a slight decrease of 0.1.”
For more information and to learn more about the methodology used, see the 2014 Times Higher Education World University Rankings website.
The Times Higher Education World University Rankings look at 1,000 universities in a master database run by Thomson Reuters.