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The University of Toronto’s academic and research performance ranks among the best in the world – and is the best in Canada – in a prestigious international ranking released this week.

The Times Higher Education (THE) report rated the University 21st overall in its rankings, which measure the institutional excellence of the world’s top 200 universities in research, teaching and knowledge transfer. Three Canadian universities placed in the top 50 in the THE’s ranking, and eight in the top 200 world-wide.

“This year there has been very strong upward movement from universities across Asia Pacific, as governments in the region focus heavily on building world class universities, backed with very strong investment,” said Phil Baty, editor of the Times Higher Education Rankings. “In this context, many western universities, particularly in North America, have suffered. Many have fallen significantly down the world university rankings this year.

“So in the context of intense competition from the East, Toronto has done very well to hold relatively firmly onto a spot very much up there among the world’s absolute elite. It is particularly impressive that Toronto has cemented its place as number one in Canada – widening the gap on its national competitors.”

The THE report is the latest instalment in an international rankings season that has consistently placed U of T among the world’s top universities. In August, the prestigious Shanghai Jiao Tong University’s Academic Ranking of World Universities put U of T first in Canada and 27th in the world.

And, in a report that ranked U of T 19th in the world,  QS World University Rankings placed U of  T first in Canada in academic reputation in all five subject areas it measures: arts and humanities; natural sciences; life sciences and biomedicine; engineering and IT; and, social sciences.