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HÂþ»­ rose to the top 20 per cent in the , which this year included institutions from 104 countries around the world.

Now ranked at 298 globally, HÂþ»­ maintained 12th place among Canadian universities and remains the top-ranked university in Atlantic Canada.

This year’s ranking evaluated 2,963 institutions and published rankings for 1,500 — the largest cohort yet.

New metrics

This is the 20th-annual edition of the QS World University Rankings. Past versions have assessed institutions across six metrics: academic reputation, citations per faculty, employer reputation, student-faculty ratios, international student ratio, and international faculty ratio. 

This year, three new metrics were added to the methodology to capture how universities are contributing to creating a better future for us all: sustainability, employment outcomes, and international research network. QS is the first to include sustainability in their world university rankings. The addition of an employment outcomes indicator further anchors the importance of employability in the QS methodology.

Related reading: HÂþ»­ places in the top 200 globally in nine subjects

Dal’s international edge

HÂþ»­ continued to excel across indicators with an international focus. The university received 99 of 100 points for international faculty ratio and Dal’s international student ratio score is more than twice the global median. The university also scored above the global median for International Research Network, which measures research with global collaboration.

Citations per faculty is the indicator that carried the most weight in HÂþ»­'s overall rank. The 2024 results were calculated using Scopus numbers extracted in February 2023 for the period 2017-2022. Dal was credited with 207,658 net citations (excluding self-citations) for this period. When normalized per faculty member, that’s nearly double the global median.

HÂþ»­ tied for 61st globally and seventh nationally for the new sustainability indicator with a score of 94.4. The sustainability score was taken from the inaugural QS Sustainability Ranking that recently placed Dal 86th in the world. 

Related reading: HÂþ»­ emerges as one of world’s top 100 universities for sustainability in new QS ranking