Often, the University of Toronto is considered the most famous in the country and one of the best universities in the world, but according to a new ranking, there is another university in Ontario that has outperformed it.

Times Higher Education (THE), a highly respected source for such rankings, issued a new report measuring how well universities worldwide are working towards achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals for “peace and prosperity for people and the planet.”

Although the University of Toronto often ranks at the top in most academic rankings, its performance this time was very weak, ranking 99th out of 1591 universities in 112 locations; much worse than in other recent assessments.

However, Queen's University in Kingston was recognized as first in North America and third in the world, making it the only institution in Canada to be ranked among the top 10.

A representative from the university told Times Higher Education that “Queen’s University has long incorporated the United Nations goals into ‘how the institution defines itself and understands its mission as a global institution.’”

He added: “Our performance in this year’s rankings confirms that Queen’s is aware of its aspirations to be a university with a real and positive impact locally, nationally, and globally, and our community works cohesively to improve our world and help shape a better future for us and our planet.”

Times Higher Education measured each university in the areas of research, supervision, outreach, and education to determine how successfully they are creating change to achieve the goals, which include eradicating poverty and hunger, ensuring health care and quality education for all, achieving gender equality, and more.

As for Times’ overall 2023 higher education rankings, Queen’s ranked very low at 251 out of 300, while the University of Toronto dropped to eighteenth place.

Interestingly, a ranking on how well schools work to reduce their environmental and social impact conducted by QS World University Rankings last fall ranked the University of Toronto second among 700 institutions.