Three Alberta schools made the list of the top research universities in Canada

There are plenty of ways to rank Canada’s colleges and universities, from on-campus culture to hiring rates of graduates. But, there’s no doubt that for those in academia, the access to (and results of) research play a major role in deciding where to go. So, it’s nice to know that more than a couple of schools out of Alberta made the list of the top research universities in Canada.

The ranking comes from Research Infosource, which is a research, consulting, and publishing firm. Their metrics to create the list were pretty straightforward, separated into ‘Sponsored Research Income’ and ‘Research Intensity’. Sponsored research income is how much the school received for research from external sources. Meanwhile, research intensity focuses on average funds available per faculty and graduate student. It should be noted that these figures reference 2020 numbers, the most recent available.

So, which Alberta schools made the list of the top research universities in Canada?

The University of Calgary took the province’s top spot, coming in at 5th overall, one spot higher than last year. On the flip side of that same coin is the University of Alberta, which dropped slightly from 5th to 6th in the rankings.

Further down the list is the University of Lethbridge, which, after a strong year, jumped from 40th up to 37th.

The rankings were topped by the University of Toronto, University of British Columbia, and McGill University in third.