Concordia moves into the world’s top 400 in latest QS rankings

The university also advances to 2nd in North America and remains top in Canada under 50, according to Times Higher Education

July 14, 2023

By Howard Bokser

Concordia’s performance in several key areas, including sustainability and international student ratio, have helped propel the university into the global top 400 for the first time in the QS World University Rankings. In QS’s newly released 2024 edition, Concordia jumped at least 164 spots to 387th worldwide, its highest placement since the ranking debuted in 2004.

The university is now in the world’s top 26 per cent out of 1,497 institutions. Last year, Concordia was in the 551-560 slot out of 1,422 institutions.

Until the current rankings, QS assessed universities based on six performance indicators: Academic Reputation, Employer Reputation, Citations Per Faculty, Faculty-Student Ratio, International Faculty Ratio and International Students Ratio. For 2024, QS added Sustainability, Employment Outcomes and International Research Network, to reflect evolving higher-education priorities.

Concordia placed in the top 100 globally — at number 97 — for the new Sustainability measure, which is based on QS’s Sustainability Rankings. With its strong emphasis on sustainability, Concordia also has scored highly in the annual Times Higher Education (THE) Impact Rankings.

QS placed the university third in Canada and 122nd in the world for International Students Ratio, which looks at universities’ global appeal. Concordia also ranked in the top 20 per cent globally for International Faculty Ratio, 227th, and Employment Outcomes, 254th.

Nationally, Concordia placed 17th out of 31, compared to 18th out of 30 last year. Among the 17 Canadian institutions that advanced in the rankings this year, Concordia showed the largest gain overall.

THE Young University Rankings

Concordia rose to second place among North American universities under 50 years old in the latest THE Young University Rankings, up from fifth last year. THE’s newly released 2023 rankings also placed Concordia number one in Canada for the sixth consecutive year.

The university’s world standing remained roughly the same as in 2022, ranking 151-200 out of 605 institutions compared to 177 out of 539 institutions last year.

The Young University Rankings recognize the best universities under 50 years old worldwide. The ranking applies the same measures of teaching, research, citations, international outlook and industry income used in its overall THE World University Rankings (WUR), although it adjusts the weightings to reflect the special characteristics of young universities.

The recent Young University Rankings results are based on the 2023 WUR, released in October 2022. THE rates institutions on five “pillars”: teaching, research, citations, industry income and international outlook.

See how the university and its programs rank among Canadian and international institutions.