McGill slipped in a new ranking of the world’s best universities (but it’s not all bad news)

It’s that time of year again, when Times Higher Education drops its World University Rankings and Montreal waits to see where McGill University landed.

The 2027 edition came out on September 30, and it’s the biggest one yet, with a record 2,297 schools from 118 countries and territories. Which, as it turns out, wasn’t great news for our top academic institution.

McGill slipped a couple of spots

McGill placed 43rd in the world in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2027, down from joint 41st last year. Funnily enough, the school’s overall score actually went up slightly, but a couple of other universities climbed a little faster.

It’s also not McGill’s first rankings hiccup this year. Over the summer, the Shanghai Ranking put it 73rd, while the NTU Rankings had it at 53rd. That said, it did hold onto first place in Canada in the QS World University Rankings 2027.

Meanwhile, the University of Toronto is Canada’s top school once again, landing 22nd in the world, down one spot from last year.

Now for the good news. McGill is still number two in Canada, just ahead of the University of British Columbia, which moved up one spot to 44th. How close was it? McGill scored 77.7 overall. UBC scored 77.6.

That’s the same 0.1-point gap that separated Oxford and MIT at the very top of the global list, which THE says is the slimmest margin ever between first and second.

Here’s how Canada’s top 10 shook out:

1. University of Toronto: 22nd
2. McGill University: 43rd
3. University of British Columbia: 44th
4. McMaster University: joint 116th
5. University of Alberta: joint 118th
6. Université de Montréal: 132nd
7. University of Waterloo: 178th
8. University of Calgary: joint 185th
9. University of Ottawa: joint 185th
10. Western University: joint 212th

How Quebec’s universities did

Université de Montréal had the best year of any Quebec school, jumping 18 spots from 150th to 132nd.

Université Laval made a big leap too, moving from the 401–500 range up to 301–325.

THE also changed how it groups schools this year, with individual ranks now going all the way to 300th and smaller bands after that. So for schools further down the list, comparing to last year gets a little fuzzy.

Here’s how all of Quebec’s ranked universities compare to last year:

• McGill University: 43rd (joint 41st in 2026)
• Université de Montréal: 132nd (150th in 2026)
• Université Laval: 301–325 (401–500 in 2026)
• Université du Québec: 501–550 (501–600 in 2026)
• Concordia University: 651–700 (601–800 in 2026)

The world’s top 10 universities for 2027

Up top, Oxford claimed first place for the 11th year in a row, with the U.S. taking seven of the top 10 spots and the U.K. grabbing the other three.

Just outside the top 10, China’s Tsinghua University climbed to 11th, which means Asia’s top school now outranks continental Europe’s best for the first time.

Here’s the global top 10:

• 1st: University of Oxford, U.K.
• 2nd: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, U.S.
• Joint 3rd: Princeton University, U.S.
• Joint 3rd: Stanford University, U.S.
• 5th: University of Cambridge, U.K.
• 6th: Harvard University, U.S.
• 7th: California Institute of Technology, U.S.
• 8th: Imperial College London, U.K.
• Joint 9th: University of California, Berkeley, U.S.
• Joint 9th: Yale University, U.S.

The full Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2027 is available on THE’s website.