Canada’s top schools fell in this best universities ranking but others aren’t close to U of T

This new ranking of the best universities in the world revealed Canada’s top schools.

Even with the top schools dropping spots and others moving up, no Canadian post-secondary institution comes close to the University of Toronto.

On September 30, the Times Higher Education World University Rankings for 2027 were released.

This list is based on an analysis of almost 20 million research papers, close to one million votes in an Academic Reputation Survey and institutional data on more than 3,000 universities around the world.

University of Oxford is the best post-secondary school in the world, according to Times Higher Education. It has held the top spot in this ranking for 11 years now.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology is second, Princeton University and Stanford University are tied for third, and the University of Cambridge is fifth in this ranking.

Then, Harvard University is sixth, California Institute of Technology is seventh, Imperial College London is eighth, and the University of California, Berkeley and Yale University are tied for ninth.

When it comes to Canadian universities, there are 34 schools in this country on the 2027 ranking.

Canada’s top school is the University of Toronto, and it’s 22nd overall, down one spot from the 2026 ranking.

Despite the drop, none of the other Canadian post-secondary schools on this list come close to taking the top spot from U of T.

Then, McGill University is 43rd overall, down two spots from last year, and the University of British Columbia is 44th overall, up one spot from 2026.

McMaster University and the University of Alberta round out Canada’s top five schools. McMaster is tied for 116th, the same as last year, and the University of Alberta is tied for 118th, up one spot.

After that, Université de Montréal is 132nd, the University of Waterloo is 178th, the University of Calgary and University of Ottawa are tied for 185th, Western University is tied for 212th, and Queen’s University is tied for 269th.

Many more Canadian universities are further down the list. These post-secondary schools in Canada ranked between 301st and 1,600th overall:

• Université Laval
• University of Victoria
• Dalhousie University
• Simon Fraser University
• University of Saskatchewan
• University of Guelph
• York University
• Université du Québec
• Carleton University
• Memorial University of Newfoundland
• University of Manitoba
• University of Windsor
• Concordia University
• Toronto Metropolitan University
• University of New Brunswick
• Ontario Tech University
• Lakehead University
• University of Regina
• Brock University
• University of Northern British Columbia
• St. Francis Xavier University
• University of Lethbridge
• Wilfrid Laurier University

This article’s cover image was used for illustrative purposes only.