University of Waterloo earns top 25 spot in global ranking for water resources

The University of Waterloo jumped 9 places to rank 25th globally for Water Resources in this year's ShanghaiRanking Global Rankings of Academic Subjects (GRAS).

Executive Director of the University of Waterloo’s Water Institute, Professor Roy Brouwer stated, “I am thrilled that the University of Waterloo is ranked in the top 25 universities in the world for water resources. This outstanding achievement is the result of the research excellence and impact of our world-class faculty members.”

Ranking world universities by subject area, the GRAS rankings were first published in 2017, and are released annually by the ShanghaiRanking Consultancy. This year more than 1,900 universities across 104 countries and regions were included in the rankings.

The rankings use a range of objective academic indicators and third-party data to measure the performance of universities, including research output using number of influential journal publications and research influence using citation impact. International collaboration on articles is another indicator along with research quality and prestigious international academic awards.

The 2023 GRAS examines 55 academic subject areas across Natural Sciences, Engineering, Life Sciences, Medical Sciences, and Social Sciences.

Given the increasing scale and complexity of water issues in Canada and around the world, the University of Waterloo established the Water Institute in 2009 to provide an on-campus network of excellence in water research, education, and innovation.  Water Institute researchers represent a wide breadth of disciplinary expertise with a membership of over 170 faculty members and 300 graduate students, who collectively span all six Waterloo academic faculties.