The QS World University Rankings by Subject have once again ranked U of T sport-related disciplines 6th in the world. This ranking, which covers sports (or exercise) science, sports studies and kinesiology - as well as sports psychology and sports management in certain cases - is now in its second year and 13 new universities feature for the first time this year.
“Last year was the first time that the QS World University Rankings identified a subject category consisting of programs that are integral to our Faculty, demonstrating the growing global relevance of kinesiology and sport and exercise sciences. I am so proud to see U of T ranked 6th in this category for the second year in a row,” said Professor Ira Jacobs, dean of the Faculty of Kinesiology and Physical Education. “This news comes just in time for me to boast about it at tonight’s public symposium Mobilizing Change: Enhancing Physical Activity Accessibility, featuring the research of our own Professors Kelly Arbour-Nicitopoulos and John Cairney.”
The University of Toronto took top 10 spots in eight subject areas in the 2018 QS World University Ranking by Subject: nursing (2nd), sports-related subjects (6th), anatomy (8th), anthropology (8th), social policy (8th), theology (8th), geography (9th) and computer science (10th). No other university was ranked in the top 50 globally for so many subjects.
For 31 subjects, U of T placed among the top 25 globally. Only six other universities were in the top 25 for 31 or more subjects – the University of Cambridge, University of Oxford, University of California-Berkeley, UCLA, Stanford University and Harvard University.
U of T was ranked first in Canada in all five of the broader subject areas, and was first in Canada in 30 of the 45 subjects in which it was ranked.
“It’s gratifying to see University of Toronto researchers recognized for the excellence of their work and their world-leading reputation across such a wide range of subject areas,” said Vivek Goel, U of T’s vice-president of research and innovation. “Such breadth and depth of scholarship in one institution is rare globally, and ensures that our students have the broadest possible exposure to leading scholars.”
The QS subject rankings are based on four measures: academic survey results of leading universities in a field, employer survey results of the best institutions and disciplines, citations per paper and the H-Index, which tries to measure the productivity and impact of the published work.
To produce the results, QS ranked 1,130 institutions and analyzed more than 22 million papers that have produced close to 200 million citations.