The University of Alberta is among the top six per cent of the world’s highest-ranking universities and the Top 5 in Canada, according to the 2027 Times Higher Education World University Rankings released today.
The university’s best performance came in the Industry pillar, where it tied for first place worldwide with several other institutions for the third year in a row. The Industry ranking is based on the number of patents citing research conducted by the university, along with the amount of revenue earned through inventions and industry partnerships.
“These rankings reflect the ingenuity of our researchers and the strength of our international and industry relationships,” says David Bressler, vice-president (international, innovation and enterprise). “Streamlining pathways for commercialization, protecting intellectual property and expanding global academic and enterprise partnerships has empowered our research community. When we bridge academic excellence with industry collaboration, we unlock real-world impacts that drive economic growth and reinforce the U of A’s reputation as a global innovation leader.”
Overall, the U of A placed 118th in the world this year, up one place from last year thanks to its continued strength in the Industry indicator along with improvements in three of the other four pillars comprising the rankings. This year’s THE rankings considered nearly 2,300 universities in 118 countries and territories.
Nationally, the U of A held steady at fifth place in the 2027 rankings. The top three Canadian institutions this year were the University of Toronto, which placed 22nd worldwide, followed by McGill University (43rd) and the University of British Columbia (44th).
These results in the THE rankings follow three other strong showings for the U of A in prominent global rankings. In August, the university was ranked 85th worldwide and fourth in Canada in the 2026 NTU World University Rankings, its best performance in the annual rankings since 2019.
Earlier that same month, the university placed fourth nationally and within the top 150 institutions globally in the 2026 Academic Ranking of World Universities. And in June, the U of A came in at 96th in the world and fourth in Canada in the 2027 QS World University Rankings.