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Mcgill - virtual campus tours.

From the comfort of your own home, come on a virtual tour of McGill’s downtown campus - with a LIVE student host! You can ask all the questions you have and interact with the host online. Nestled into the side of Mount Royal, in the heart of the city, McGill’s downtown campus offers an exceptional space for outdoor and city lovers alike. With its rich heritage, abundance of green spaces and lively urban vibe, it’s a campus you’ll want to discover! This virtual tour is designed for prospective students. The live student host will show you around the central part of campus, give you the inside scoop on student life, academics, life in Montreal, library resources, clubs on campus and much more. You can check out the athletics complex and residences as well. Please note that live virtual campus tours are currently on hold. They will resume soon.

McGill University’s annual Hot Cities Tour marks fifteenth anniversary

McGill University in Montreal offers a program that every spring brings a group of about 30 students, a dozen alumni and professors to areas that are considered emerging global economies.

Coordinated by Professor Karl Moore, this year the 15th anniversary Hot Cities Tour went to Cairo and Morocco.

Speaking with WAMC North Country Bureau Chief Pat Bradley, Moore says the Hot Cities tour is an important program for McGill University and its students:

The slogan of the trip is taking the future to the future, that is young people to where there’s growing economies. Morocco’s doing very well, really growing. But we wanted to go to Cairo, part of it is just because of the history. And we went and saw the Great Pyramid. It’s one of the, it’s the only remaining Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. And we went and saw the Sphinx. We also met with the Minister of Information Technology and met with a bunch of entrepreneurs. So Egypt’s not doing well economically but there’s some hopes for the future with technology and communications and then with entrepreneurial things going on. We went to a palace. We had to leave our phones at the door because it was a palace. Incredible history. But there’s where the entrepreneurs were and doing some very cool up to date stuff. So we enjoyed that sense of history and that sense of the future. But Morocco is an excellent economy and it’s becoming a hub in North Africa, it has been for years, with Europe. And it’s about 18 miles we were told from Spain to Morocco and they might build a tunnel. They’re thinking about building a tunnel for trucks to come through. But they do a lot of shipping there. We met with the head of the port, one of the senior guys at the port there. We met with the CEO of the Royal Air Maroc Airline. And they’re really seeing themselves as being Africa’s connection to Europe into Africa and increasingly they’re portraying themselves as an Atlantic country, which is absolutely true. One thing that struck us is we flew from Montreal to Casablanca. It took about 6 hours. But it took almost 5 from Casablanca to Cairo, which myself and many others were surprised by that. We just didn’t realize how big Africa is. Now part of this we discussed in class is the map of the world was done by Europeans and Canada looks huge and Africa much smaller because of the world view they had in the way they presented the map. But it was that being on the plane for 5 hours that was, okay, Egypt is on the far side, east side of Africa and Morocco is on the far west side. But still. Huge continent. Huge possibilities. To some degree Africa is the future of the world. To some degree. Part of it is they’re having children unlike Europe and parts of the world. Now Canada and the U.S. are saved by immigration. They also have enormous amounts of minerals and other things. And we saw on our three trips there evidence of China being more and more involved in Africa. And the West, very much including the U.S. and Europe, have somewhat dropped the ball to there and I think it’s time that the West lean back into Africa.

The Hot Cities Tour is intended to expose students to emerging economies and one of the things that you mentioned is that the Cairo area is not doing well economically but there are some entrepreneurs. What can they learn by seeing an economy that’s not doing well, yet you have the entrepreneurs there trying to enhance the economy?

They give you the sense of the hope of the future and we see that increasing around the world as providing a sense of hope and direction for the future and a sense of possibility rather than just concern about where we’ve been and where we’re going.

Did the students pick up on the dichotomy of the entrepreneurs trying to do that yet seeing the state of the economy in Cairo?

Oh, absolutely. It was something where we took the bus. We got to the airport, went out to see the Great Pyramids and all and what we saw were people on the side of the road like you see in some parts of the world selling things and so on. And we asked one of the Egyptians with us like what’s going on here and it was partly that they’re trying to hustle. They’re trying to provide for their families. And I’ve seen it in other parts of the world but we didn’t see it in Morocco. So we admire their wanting to provide but it’s unfortunate they’ve got to go to those extents to do it at times.

What kinds of businesses did you visit and what kinds of businesses are emerging first in Cairo and then in Morocco?

Well in Egypt it was more around entrepreneurs is what we were doing. But we were there for just a couple of days. Met with the cabinet minister. Met with a big law firm. One of his sons who I knew at McGill is becoming a partner at a big law firm, so it was fun. We had eight law students and a lawyer with us who it was fun to go and talk to them privately about that. In Morocco there’s more of a role for the government in the (Michael Porter) from Harvard view of a cluster. So in Montreal we have clusters around aerospace. And we saw that, for example, the last day we went to a resort town. Met with the managing director of the hotel and the government is encouraged and providing funding for high end hotels to set up complexes where families can come, where they didn’t have that in the past. And so it makes it much more attractive to draw foreigners to go there and spend money and provide jobs for the locals and it’s something the government’s encouraging. We also went to the place where aerospace is strong and Bombardier many years ago set up a plant to make parts there. And Renault is making cars in Morocco. So they’ve created clusters where they have schools. We went to one of the top universities there that has a Center of AI. So the government’s provided funding to get clusters of capability there so that you want to invest there because they have the education, they have the workforce, they have the desire to do that. They have the funding available.

You began the Hot Cities Tour for McGill University back in 2009, so it’s been about 15 years. How has it evolved over those years?

The fun part is that we go somewhere different every year and it’s a chance to explore the world. It’s a lot more work to go somewhere different but it’s exciting to see different parts of the world and have McGill students and alumni exploring, I think we’ve been to 27 countries now. It’s a lot of work but it’s a joy to go and explore the world with students, alumni and this year with another prof as well.

Karl Moore is assessing costs before choosing next year’s McGill University Hot Cities Tour and is looking into high-growth areas such as Kenya and Rwanda.

4 down, 46 to go as first batch of London, Ont.-built armoured vehicles will soon be sent to Ukraine

The first four of 50 military vehicles being built at a London, Ont., factory have rolled off the assembly line and will soon be en route to the Ukrainian army.The announcement was made Wednesday during an event at General Dynamics Land Systems's (GDLS) manufacturing plant. It was attended by Canadian government and company officials as well as a handful of employees at the plant. "We know that these vehicles will save lives," said Jason Alejandro Monahan, GDLS Canada's vice-president. "Decision

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15 arrests made after pro-Palestinian protesters at McGill barricade themselves inside admin building, tear gas used on crowd outside

By News Staff

Posted June 6, 2024 6:01 pm.

Last Updated June 7, 2024 5:50 pm.

Montreal police (SPVM) made 15 arrests after pro-Palestinian protesters at McGill barricaded themselves inside the main administration building on Thursday afternoon and over 100 supporters gathered outside.

By early evening the SPVM’s specialized intervention group had gone inside to escort civilians out and used tear gas to disperse the crowd outside. They were also seen violently pushing protesters to the ground.

“Action taken by police officers onsite include shields and chemical irritants,” said SPVM spokesperson Véronique Dubuc. She added that protesters had thrown objects and stones at police officers.

It all ended around 10:30 p.m.

Thirteen people were arrested from inside the building for breaking and entering and two outside the building for obstructing police work. Police also say that there were various reports of graffiti and vandalism.

About 100 protesters had gathered at the James Administration Building. Metal fencing was erected in front of its entrance, with protesters standing in front holding banners.

Police in riot gear confronted the crowd outside and fired tear gas and pepper spray in an effort to disperse them shortly after 7 p.m.

In a statement Friday morning, McGill University said, “None of this is peaceful protesting. It is designed to threaten, coerce and scare people. It is completely unacceptable.”

The SPVM said it has no intention of intervening in a pro-Palestinian encampment on the downtown campus. SPVM officer Jean-Pierre Brabant said on Friday that police had intervened on Thursday because crimes were being committed, which was not the case with the encampment. He would not say whether the people arrested were involved in the camp.

“As far as the encampment is concerned, nothing is going to change,” said Brabant, adding that it was up to the university to convince the court to dismantle the encampment.

‘Part of global call to action’

Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR) McGill said in a press release Thursday afternoon that the protest was “part of the global call to action #Escalate4Rafah.”

In social media videos posted in the afternoon, protesters could be seen waving a Palestinian flag from the building window and holding a sign that said, “You could have divested 41 days ago.”

“Students have blockaded themselves inside the building, taking ownership of their university,” wrote SPHR McGill.

On Friday morning, McGill thanked police “for their expertise in handling the situation.” 

“During the occupation, protesters blockaded several entry doors, using chains or furniture, and attempted to remove inner doors to access offices. They vandalized parts of the exterior and interior of the building and locked themselves in one room and damaged furniture. Protesters also attempted to build a barricade outside the building but police quickly dismantled it. Some staff were forced to shelter in place while those occupying the building banged on the doors and yelled threats. Staff working in the building reported that they heard chants of ‘violence now.'” 

McGill added that it supports the right to freedom of expression within the limits recognized by law. “We strongly condemn the use of intimidating, aggressive, harassing or illegal tactics such as those seen yesterday. This troubling event is the latest escalation in a series of incidents that have occurred since April 27, when the encampment first appeared on McGill’s lower field.”  

BREAKING: An autonomous group of students have SUCCESSFULLY occupied the McGill Administration Building. Urgent mobilization required now at 845 Sherbrooke Ouest! @palyouthmvmt @SPHRConcordia pic.twitter.com/9WlpoKNViR — SPHR McGill (@McgillSphr) June 6, 2024

SPHR McGill claims that the university invests over $20 million in technology and weapons manufacturing companies that are directly involved in operations in Gaza. “Moreover, the university is involved in exchange programs with Israeli universities.”

SPHR McGill listed Lockheed Martin, Elbit Systems, and Thales as examples of companies they want McGill to divest from and boycott.

“This barricade is part of a wave of mass movement of students, faculty, staff, alumni and supporters standing in solidarity with Gaza,” and demanding that universities divest and end all ties with Israel and its universities. 

Pro-Palestinian encampment at McGill

A pro-Palestinian encampment at McGill has been set-up on the lower field of their downtown campus since April 27 – and demonstrators have said they have no intention of leaving. Two emergency injunction requests by the university to dismantle the camp were rejected by Quebec Superior Court judges.

Last week, McGill president Deep Saini published a letter calling for a stronger police response following escalating tensions. Saini listed incidents where protesters had followed university administrators to their homes and demonstrated outside.

“The McGill administration has the power and ability to answer the democratically-articulated demands of the student body, and as long as they refuse, students will continue standing up,” write SPHR McGill.

“The McGill administration has repeatedly tried to engage in dialogue with McGill students in the encampment. Last week, it reached out to re-open discussions after encampment leaders walked away from the table,” continued McGill in it’s statement on Friday morning. “In many other institutions, we’ve seen encampment leaders work with campus administration to find some common ground that represents positive change, despite disagreements. Yet, McGill’s offer, which is comparable to that made by other universities who have reached resolutions, has been rejected by the encampment on our campus.”   

-With files from The Canadian Press

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Spikeopathy speculative fiction contaminates the blood supply.

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We have to talk about the word “spikeopathy,” not to be confused with “psychopathy.”

Our office recently celebrated its 25th anniversary—25 years of, among other things, separating sense from nonsense on scientific matters. I would argue that our work is harder now than it has ever been: as the dance of science becomes ever more convoluted, pseudoscience follows in its footsteps, imitating its complexity and looking more and more convincing.

When a panic-inducing claim is made about a serious topic, like the COVID-19 vaccines, some will be reassured when an expert they trust simply tells them not to worry. Others, however, find the evidence for the claim so detailed and academic-looking that, even if they do not understand it, they require a deeper debunk. As Brandolini’s law states, the amount of energy (and the number of words, I would add) required to refute nonsense is an order of magnitude bigger than was needed to produce it. Defecating on a pasture is easy; shoveling it out of there is a slog.

You may have heard from unscrupulous sources that our blood supply is now contaminated by the blood of the vaccinated, that the spike protein encoded by the COVID-19 vaccines is dangerous on its own and could now make the unvaccinated ill through transfusions. A prominent anti-vaxxer, the American Del Bigtree, even flew to Mexico to get a transfusion of  “unvaccinated blood”  following a substantial blood loss from hemorrhoids.

As we slide down this rabbit hole, you will see why scientists have had to write multiple 10,000-word refutations on this subject. Those of us trying to fairly explain our understanding of the science of vaccines are at a major disadvantage: we can’t simply make stuff up.

Seeing ghosts 

I am indebted to the work of medical doctors and scientists like  David Gorski ,  Ed Nirenberg  and  Dan Wilson , who regularly tackle bad COVID studies and perform their extensive pre-mortem autopsies. It’s messy work. I will try to clean it up and summarize.

The tainted blood supply claim recently resurfaced thanks to  a Japanese pre-print , meaning a scientific manuscript that has yet to be reviewed by other scientists. It paints a horrifying picture of studies apparently showing that the spike protein  itself , divorced from the coronavirus, stays in the body and takes on weird shapes that are infectious much like the prions of mad cow disease. The alleged disease caused by the spike protein has been called “spikeopathy.” And now the blood of vaccinated people has infected blood banks. The twist is that these fears aren’t voiced by an inmate in a madhouse; they come with citations to actual scientific papers, making them appear credible.

Let’s look at the claim that the spike protein from the vaccine stays in the body for weeks, if not months. You will remember that the COVID vaccines contain molecular instructions, in the form of messenger RNA (mRNA) for the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, for our bodies to make the coronavirus’ spike protein, which adorns the virus like a crown and helps it bind to the cells lining our airway. These instructions are read by some of our cells, the spike protein is made, and our immune system learns to recognize it in case it encounters it in the wild.

Anti-vaxxers claim this process, which was only supposed to last a few days, goes on for much longer in the body. We were lied to, they say. One  study , coming out of Harvard and the Université de Montréal, reported seeing the spike protein  in the blood  of 11 people who had been vaccinated, and the spike protein was not even supposed to end up in the blood but to stay inside of immune cells. How much of this spike protein was detected? A few  trillionths of a gram  per millilitre of blood , almost nothing, because the authors used a highly sensitive method and they managed to detect a signal at the edge of the assay’s limit. It is likely that some of the immune cells now displaying the spike protein—a desirable thing for vaccines to work—were  killed by other cells or simply died , and these bits and parts of dead cells were picked up by this incredibly sensitive test. This is similar to a  paper  from Italy and the United Kingdom in which  fragments  of the spike protein were found in the blood of vaccinated people up to 187 days post-vaccination. We have become the victims of our laboratory-enhanced eyes: we can now detect parts per quadrillion of chemicals, traces of traces. It’s not far from spotting a single grain of rice on a beach and thinking the sand is getting contaminated.

When it’s not the spike protein itself that is seen, it’s the mRNA coding for it. A  Danish study  showed that this mRNA molecule could be found in the blood up to a month after receiving either the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine. But what the researchers found weeks after vaccination were, again,  small  fragments  of the mRNA , which cannot result in the production of the spike protein, like how a few lines from a recipe book aren’t enough to produce a cake. None of these findings are alarming once we contextualize them.

But can the spike protein make us sick divorced from the rest of the coronavirus?

The RNA instructions we get from the vaccines to make the spike protein are different from the ones found in the coronavirus. The RNA molecule is a string of bases, so-called “letters”, like beads on a string, and some of these bases have been modified for the vaccine through a process known as methylpseudouridylation. Without it, the RNA in the vaccines would have been recognized as foreign by our body and immediately destroyed, causing a bad immune reaction in the process. The vaccines would have failed. Scientists, knowing this, made these alterations so the RNA would be treated the same as human-made RNAs and would remain in cells long enough to be translated into the spike protein.

But panic erupted in anti-vaccine circles when it was discovered that this alteration meant the spike protein may not always be produced correctly. Rather, it was shown that the protein-producing apparatus would  slip  on this altered RNA molecule and read it differently. This is known as a frameshift. RNA is read three bases at a time and each triplet corresponds to a specific building block in the nascent protein. Imagine the phrase “BAD JAB,” where each triplet forms a word. If you slip and miss the initial “B,” you end up with “ADJ AB,” which is meaningless. Methylpseudouridylated RNA can slip in this way and produce “nonsensical” proteins. Could these nonsensical proteins, let loose in our cells, harm us?

We actually know, from using an artificial construct based on the vaccine mRNA, that these nonsensical proteins are much fewer in numbers compared to the actual spike protein (see the starred bands in figure 1E of  this paper ), and we also know from looking at the proteins made when we expose the Pfizer vaccine to the molecules in our cells that translate it into a protein that  only the expected spike protein is easily detected . Anomalous versions of it, if they are there, are often too rare to be seen. Our bodies have already evolved to deal with the occasional wrong protein, so this is unlikely to be an issue.

Anti-vaxxers will tell you that frameshifting mutations can cause  some diseases  (many of which can  also  be caused by other types of mutations, by the way). But there is a vital difference here. In the case of the disease, the DNA itself has the frameshift mutation. The correct protein cannot be made from that bit of DNA. In the case of the COVID vaccines, frameshift  can  happen occasionally, but it is not baked into the molecule and the correct spike protein is almost always produced in the end.

A spiked literature

All of these individual claims are now routinely packaged into “narrative reviews,” often written by anti-vaccine celebrities like computer scientist Stephanie Seneff and ivermectin guru Peter McCullough, that scare the reader with speculative and decontextualized findings like these and that benefit from getting published in academic journals. These papers sneakily take findings in the coronavirus itself and the disease that it causes and speculate that it must also apply to the vaccine, as if our understanding of the damage the influenza  virus can do was relevant to the safety of the flu  vaccine . One such  infamous review  contains 29 instances of the word “potential” or “potentially” and another 29 occurrences of “could” outside of its bibliography. With this much imaginary obsession over the spike protein, it’s no longer speculation; it’s “spikulation.”

One of these bits of “spikulation” is that the spike protein itself behaves like a prion. You may remember the scare over mad cow disease. Prion-based diseases are peculiar: they are caused by misshapen proteins whose altered shape is infectious. They corrupt our own version of the same protein and can cause nasty, degenerative conditions like Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. But calling the spike protein a prion is a stretch: it’s because looking at the protein’s sequence, scientists found  regions that are commonly found in prions . This is not even  in vitro  work; this is  in silico  stuff, done on the computer. This is then combined with a  report  that 26 people were diagnosed with a prion disease within weeks of receiving a COVID vaccine. These oddities get repackaged in review articles to sound the alarm about mass harm.

So how do these fantastical, pseudoscientific review articles even get published in the first place? When the one with 29 uses of the word “potential” was published in the journal  Food and Chemical Toxicology  (the one which, appropriately enough, had published  the infamous Seralini study  wrongfully linking GMOs and the commercial pesticide Roundup to cancer in rats, before retracting it), an emeritus professor in oncology wrote to the editor-in-chief, calling the paper a  “militant, agitational tract.”  The editor did not take the paper down; in fact, you can  still read it  two years after its publication. Through either naiveté or kinship, some journal editors actually let anti-vaccine crusaders publish their sloppy work. Much of it gets published in journals that look predatory, with a quick turnaround time and little scrutiny. Then there is the impressive-sounding  International Journal of Vaccine Theory, Practice, and Research , which appears to be a journal recently set up specifically to launder COVID-19 anti-vaccine speculation. Its editor-in-chief has  a doctorate in general linguistics , and associate editors include noted anti-vaxxers like Seneff and Brian Hooker. 

The Japanese preprint about the tainted blood supply is similarly speculative and alarmist. It calls for the suspension of the vaccination campaign against COVID, using the same repackaged half-truths and fictions that so many other anti-vaccine review articles spew. One of its authors, Masanori Fukushima, has  already published  with Seneff and McCullough.

But if the mRNA vaccines were so dangerous, inoculating us with a prion protein comparable to what we see in mad cow disease, we would know by now. The intense scrutiny these vaccines are under resulted in the detection of a one-in-a-million blood clot risk with the Johnson&Johnson vaccine six weeks after it started to be widely distributed. Anti-vaxxers will then  turn to the VAERS website  and other databases dedicated to the reporting of illness following vaccination as proof of harm, but they refuse to understand how these databases work to protect the public. Just because I get a headache the day after receiving a vaccine does not mean the vaccine gave me the headache. We have to look at how common headaches are in general and see if there has been an increase. The same goes for prion diseases.

The COVID vaccines, administered  over 13 billion times , are really, really safe. A  massive review  looking at 41 randomized controlled trials of 12 different COVID-19 vaccines on a total of nearly half a million participants concluded that there was probably little to no difference between most vaccines and placebos when it came to serious side effects. Yes, rare serious side effects do happen, and scientists are trying to figure out why, with their early clues misused by anti-vaccine activists to paint these vaccines as genocidal. But if the spike protein encoded by these vaccines was so deadly, you would not survive receiving 217 of these injections. Yet a German man did. Why? The  article  reporting on this oddity mentions “private reasons,” but his immune system was fine and he did not die.

I wouldn’t worry if he offered to donate some of his blood.

Take-home message: - The claim that the spike protein or its messenger RNA can be detected for weeks or months after vaccination is based on studies where fragments were barely detectable, often trillionths of a gram, which is in keeping with our understanding of biology - The fears around the wrong protein being made because the vaccine RNA has been modified is not backed up by the evidence, which shows that those wrong proteins are few and far in between and are likely destroyed by the cell like most malformed proteins we naturally produce - The idea that the spike protein would behave like a prion and cause disease is not based on laboratory studies in cells and animals, but rather on computer analyses of its sequence - Over 13 billion doses of the COVID-19 vaccines have been administered, with robust data showing they are overwhelmingly safe

@CrackedScience

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The top three universities in Canada according to the 2025 QS World University Rankings

For the second consecutive year, the top 40 of Quacquarelli Symonds’ (QS) World University Rankings include three Canadian universities.

QS is an organization that acts as an authority concerning the analysis of higher education institutions on a global scale. QS also says that its World University rankings are “the only ranking system to measure both employability and sustainability performance.”

Where did Canada’s top schools rank in QS’ World University Rankings for 2025?

Looking ahead to next year, QS ranked the following three schools near the top of its 2025 World University Rankings .

Discover your options to study in Canada

Note: This year’s list included over 1500 institutions.

Notably, these three schools are all also located in Canada’s three most popular provinces for newcomers.

In fact, all but one of the schools inside Canada’s own top 10 for 2025 (according to QS) are located in Ontario, British Columbia or Quebec. The one exception to this is the University of Alberta. See more about Canada’s top 10 schools for 2025 towards the end of this article.

University of Toronto – UofT

• Overall rank: 25
• Overall score: 84.1

Score by factor

• Academic Reputation: 99.7
• Faculty/Student Ratio: 44.9
• Citations per Faculty: 50.8
• Employer Reputation: 96.9
• International Faculty/Student Ratio: 96.9 (Faculty) and 96.1 (Student)
• Sustainability: 100
• Employment Outcomes: 98.7
• International Research Network: 97.7

What to know about UofT

Down a few spots from its 21st-place finish in QS’ World University Rankings last year, UofT is Canada’s highest-ranking post-secondary institution for the second year in a row.

However, UofT did rank number one overall in QS’ world rankings for sustainability.

Also receiving scores above 96.0 for academic reputation, employer reputation, employment outcomes, international research network and both international ratios, UofT is once again regarded as one of the top post-secondary institutions in the world.

Note: This is UofT’s fifth time being included inside QS’ top 30 in the last six years (2023 being the only exception, when UofT ranked #34).

McGill University – McGill

• Overall rank: 29
• Overall score: 83
• Academic Reputation: 94.3
• Faculty/Student Ratio: 62.3
• Citations per Faculty: 57.9
• Employer Reputation: 87.6
• International Faculty/Student Ratio: 83.7 (Faculty) and 89.6 (Student)
• Sustainability: 99.1
• Employment Outcomes: 98.3
• International Research Network: 94.2

What to know about McGill

Up one spot from last year (#30), McGill has been ranked inside the top 30 of QS’ World University Rankings for the first time since 2022. This year also continues a now 13-year trend where McGill is annually ranking somewhere in the top 35 of QS’ World University Rankings.

University of British Columbia – UBC

• Overall rank: 38
• Overall score: 81
• Academic Reputation: 98.3
• Faculty/Student Ratio: 34.5
• Citations per Faculty: 57.7
• Employer Reputation: 94.3
• International Faculty/Student Ratio: 95.5 (Faculty) and 72.8 (Student)
• Sustainability: 99.8
• Employment Outcomes: 74.6
• International Research Network: 96.2

What to know about UBC

After ranking 34th on QS’ World University Rankings in 2024, UBC has fallen four spots in QS’ 2025 rankings.

UBC was given scores above 94.2 in five of QS’ eight assessed criteria, most notably for academic reputation and sustainability. In fact, ranking just a few spots behind UofT, UBC ranked number four overall in QS’ world rankings for sustainability.

Which schools rounded out Canada’s top 10?

While the three schools above all ranked inside the top 40 of QS’ world rankings, Quacquarelli Symonds also has specific rankings dedicated to some of the top international student destinations.

In QS’ rankings for Canada, in addition to UofT, McGill and UBC, these seven institutions round out Canada’s top 10 post-secondary institutions for 2025.

4. University of Alberta (#96 overall)

5. University of Waterloo (#115 overall)

6. Western University (#120 overall)

7. Universite de Montreal (#159 overall)

8. McMaster University (#176 overall)

9. University of Ottawa (#189 overall)

10. Queen’s University (#193 overall)

QS publishes a World University Rankings annually, identifying the best schools in the context of eight different factors, three of which were newly added after QS released its 2024 list.

The factors used to rank these institutions include:

• Academic Reputation
• Faculty/Student Ratio
• Citations per Faculty
• Employer Reputation
• International Faculty/Student Ratio
• Sustainability
• Employment Outcomes
• International Research Network

Note: More detail on these individual factors, which together make up the QS World University Rankings methodology, will be outlined below.

Each school ranked inside the QS World University Rankings receives an overall score as well as a score for each of the five above factors individually.

How does QS develop its ranking system?

QS now uses eight different criteria to rank the schools in its World University Rankings.

For a more detailed look at each of these factors, visit this QS webpage .

Listed by weight (the level of impact or importance that each criterion has in QS’ ranking system), these factors are:

Academic reputation (30%)

• A school’s academic reputation is determined after conducting surveys with “thousands” of people “who teach and research” in the higher education industry

Citations per faculty (20%)

• This criteria accounts for how many times, in the last five years, a paper written or produced by a faculty member at a particular school was cited by a different publication

QS notes that “citations per faculty” are considered a measure of the institution’s reliability in the context of academic writings

Employer reputation (15%)

• Another survey-based criteria, this part of the QS methodology factors in the responses of global employers who are asked to “name [up to 10 (local) and 30 (international) universities that] they believe” produce some of the most employable graduates

Faculty/student ratio (10%)

• QS’ methodology rewards low student-to-faculty ratios and small class sizes because these factors are considered to contribute to an advantageous, “more personalized, and collaborative learning environment”

International faculty/student ratio (10%)

• The number of international faculty members to domestic faculty members
• The number of international students to domestic students

Note: Each of the ratios above is weighted at 5% and QS notes that these ratios, which are initially self-reported by the institution are verified against government data when possible.

Sustainability (5%)

• This factor measures the commitment to sustainability (and outward evidence of sustainability) put forth by an institution and its alumni

Employment Outcomes (5%)

• This factor measures the relative ability of an institution to ensure a high level of employability for its graduates

International Research Network (5%)

• A measure, according to QS, of “how institutions create and sustain research partnerships resulting in internationally co-authored publications … to collaborate on solving the world's challenges and disseminate vital research to wider audiences”
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