Canada is losing to the U.S. in these five categories, report on higher education finds

Flags from Canada and the US fly atop the Peace Arch at the Peace Arch Border Crossing in Blaine, Washington, U.S. Photo by David Ryder /Bloomberg

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A recent global ranking of the top higher education and research systems sees Canada come in at an impressive fifth place worldwide — but it’s still behind the United States.

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The 2026 report by MeasuresHE, a research company specializing in analysis and data, scored countries across seven pillars: research, sustainability, openness, international integration, global standing, demographics and investment, and academic integrity.

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Canada was awarded an overall score of 87.8, placing it behind the U.K., the Netherlands, the U.S. and Sweden.

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The country scored highly for academic integrity (100), a metric that assessed factors like retraction and self-citation rates to assess research standards, as well as global standing (94.8), which looked at the average rank of a nation’s top two academic institutions.

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However, Canada received weaker scores for openness (77.3), which measured the accessibility of academic research and its real-world application, and sustainability (84).

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By comparison, the U.S. scored 89 overall, with 81.2 for openness and 88.4 for sustainability, alongside an impressive 99.7 for global standing.

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The U.S. also outperformed Canada for demographics and investment, scoring 79.8 compared to Canada’s 75.2. This pillar looked at national support for education and research, adjusted for GDP and human capital and rewarding countries that have equal participation of men and women.

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However, Canada ranked higher than its southern neighbour for research (89.4 vs 89), international integration (84 vs 60.4) and academic integrity (100 vs 99.6).

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International integration reflects a country’s ability to attract global talent, while the research pillar refers to the quality and leadership of research output.

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David Watkins, co-founder of MeasuresHE and former managing director of data at Times Higher Education (THE), praised Canada’s higher education system when speaking to University Affairs magazine.

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“Some countries have very high influence, and it’s got some top universities…but the average university isn’t that great. And I think you see the same thing in the United States,” he said.

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“Whereas, when you look at Canada, look at Australia, and at Western Europe in particular, those areas, there’s real strengths across the board, rather than weaknesses within the lower tiers of the university system.”

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The seven pillars were all weighted differently, with research carrying the biggest influence at 35 per cent, followed by global standing at 20 per cent.

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MeasuresHE says the research was based on data sourced from OpenAlex, a bibliometric database of scientific papers, authors and institutions, as well as information from the UNESCO Institute for Statistics, UN World Population Prospects, Times Higher Education World University Rankings and QS World University Rankings.