A hub for international research excellence

Two major world university rankings released in the last two weeks cast a glowing light on UVic. The Leiden rankings show that UVic is Canada’s most intensive environment for international research collaboration, and the QS subject area rankings put UVic in the world's top 200 universities in five fields.

Did you know that UVic is the top Canadian university for published research based on international collaborations? It’s true.

The recently released 2013 rankings, produced by Leiden University’s Centre for Science and Technology Studies, use multi-year Web of Science publication and citation data in the sciences, social sciences, arts, and humanities to measure the scientific performance of 500 major universities worldwide.

This year’s rankings put UVic ahead of all other Canadian universities in the proportion of internationally co-authored research, based on 2008-2011 publications. UVic also retains its place in the top one per cent of universities in the world and among the top-ranked in Canada for scientific impact in this year’s rankings.

“These metrics underscore the importance that participation in international networks and partnerships plays in demonstrating research quality and impact,” explains Howard Brunt, UVic Vice-President Research. “Our researchers’ penchant for linking with other top scholars from around the world helps explain why UVic is recognized as one of Canada’s top research-intensive universities.”

This year, UVic is fifth overall in the country and the top-ranked Canadian university without a medical school, according to Leiden. UVic’s publication impact in natural science and engineering, as well as math and computer science, is particularly noteworthy. In natural science and engineering, UVic placed 68th worldwide and third in Canada, and in math and computer science, the university placed 123rd and sixth nationally.

Leadership across the disciplines

The 2013 QS World University Rankings by Subject, released on May 8, also recognized UVic’s leadership in a broad mix of academic fields. UVic was identified in the top 200 institutions globally for research in five QS subject areas: earth and marine sciences, geography, law, philosophy and English language and literature.

The QS subject ranking studied nearly 3,000 of the world’s top universities – approximately 15 per cent of all institutions – and ranked fewer than 700 of them for statistically significant subject-specific leadership.  

UVic’s remarkable strength across a full spectrum of disciplines was also notable. The university was ranked at world-class level in 21 of 30 QS-identified subject areas.

“The Leiden rankings and the QS subject rankings confirm UVic’s strong research performance and impact on the international stage," said UVic President David Turpin. “For a young university, celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, it is gratifying to see this international recognition for the world-class research undertaken at UVic."

UVic is widely recognized as one of Canada’s top universities. Information about UVic performance in other national and international rankings, including the Times Higher Education, Maclean’s and Re$earch Infosource, is available online at bit.ly/uvic-rankings