Dalhousie University, a new entrant to the Times Higher Education's World University Rankings Top 200 listPaul Darrow
The juxtaposition of headlines could not be starker.
Perusing the line story on the front page of my morning read, I see that "Canada's universities make the grade globally" in "what is arguably the most influential set of global university rankings." Turning to the Guardian's report of the same Times Higher Education rankings, I see that "UK does badly in international university league table":
"Britain has three institutions in the top 10, with Imperial College London at ninth. But there are just five British universities in the top 50 - UCL is rated 22nd and Edinburgh 40th - and just 14 in the top 100."
Yet, drilling down in the data in the Globe report, it turns out that Canada has no institutions in the top 10 - the U of T, at No. 17, is our top university in these rankings - three universities in the top 50 and four in the top 100. The good news is that nine of our universities are in the top 200, which places us fifth in the world by this measure.
Why the different emphasis in the two reports?
In part, it's due to imminent and deep spending cuts being telegraphed by Britain's coalition government; notably, in acknowledging our improved performance, the Guardian reports that "Canada … invests heavily in higher education." However, it's also a function of how Britons and Canadians see themselves in the world, what we value and our respective expectations of excellence.
In sport, and particularly in hockey, we desperately wanted to own the podium in Vancouver and went full out. In higher education, "we're No. 5" will be worn as a badge of pride and likely suffice.