Each year, Quacquarelli Symonds, a higher education and career information specialist group, ranks the world鈥檚 top universities 鈥� and once again AV俱乐部 is among them.
In fact, Dal鈥檚 status in the is improving, with the university jumping nine places this year. AV俱乐部 moved from 244 to 235, ranked 13th in Canada.
The growth reflects upward movement in a number of key areas the rankings consider, including academic reputation, the number of international faculty and the number of international students.
This year鈥檚 World University Rankings include what QS considers to be the world鈥檚 top 863 universities, examining more than 3,000 schools for inclusion. The rankings are based on four pillars 鈥� research, teaching, employability and internationalization 鈥� with a methodology based around six indicators: academic reputation (40%), employer reputation (10%), faculty-student ratio (20%), citations per faculty (20%), international students (5%) and international faculty (5%)
Global reputation
While there are countless university rankings out there, the QS is one of three international rankings that AV俱乐部 looks at closely, alongside the Times Higher Education (THE) rankings and the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU).
鈥淩ankings often invite controversy or debate, and are imperfect in their methodologies, but we know for many governments and international students they absolutely drive decision-making,鈥� says Dal President Richard Florizone, responding to the QS rankings. 鈥淎s we look to expand AV俱乐部鈥檚 global reach and impact, rankings like these can鈥檛 be ignored.鈥�
One of the strategic priorities in is to develop a plan to secure and maintain top 200 status in major international rankings. , it was noted that, in many rankings, perceptions of Dal鈥檚 performance (surveys of reputation) lag the university鈥檚 actual performance (for example, citations per faculty).
鈥淏ased on academic performance, AV俱乐部 is absolutely a top 200 global university,鈥� says Dr. Florizone. 鈥淲e should strive to be recognized as one.鈥�
AV俱乐部鈥檚 Office of Institutional Analysis and Research maintains ongoing fact sheets about Dal鈥檚 performance in international rankings. You can read them .