Power in numbers: Alumni play critical role in raising Memorial's international ranking

Apr 29th, 2019

By Jeff Green

Dr. Neil Bose, vice-president (research), is encouraging the university's
Power in numbers: Alumni play critical role in raising Memorial's international ranking

Memorial is hoping its nearly 95,000 active alumni living around the world will continue to promote their alma mater in an effort to raise its global profile.

Dr. Neil Bose, vice-president (research), is encouraging the university’s “greatest ambassadors” to sign up and participate in a variety of online reputation surveys.

“We know our alumni are deeply proud of their Memorial roots and the important role the university plays in helping build a vibrant and sustainable future for Newfoundland and Labrador,” said Dr. Bose.

“I hope these same graduates will take the opportunity, when possible, to help further advance the university’s reputation by participating in ranking surveys throughout the year.”

With roughly 25,000-30,000 universities in the world, Dr. Bose says Memorial is well regarded to be among the best top 1,000 universities. He wants to ensure those rankings continue to grow.

According to the prestigious Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings 2019, Memorial places 19th out of 27 institutions that it ranked within Canada and among the top 501-600 post-secondary institutions in the world. A total of 1,258 institutions were included in the most recent listings, which are considered one of the most respected rankings in the world.

Memorial is the only Canadian university to make the list of the world’s top post-secondary institutions for the study of marine/ocean engineering. Memorial placed 38 among global universities ranked in the Engineering field as reported last month by the Shanghai Ranking Consultancy, which included 44 top universities in its marine/ocean engineering listing. In total, more than 4,000 universities were ranked.

In the 2019 QS World University Rankings, Memorial ranks in the 651-700 category among worldwide universities, improving on last year’s standing within the 701-750 category. QS World University Rankings is considered one of the world’s most viewed global evaluations of university research strength.

For the 2018-19 Center for World University Rankings (CWUR), Memorial places 579 in the top 1,000 universities on the globe, up from 624 the year before. CWUR, another increasingly influential survey, uses seven factors to rank universities, including quality of education, alumni employment, quality of faculty, research output, quality publications, influence and citations.

“Building Memorial’s international profile is a top goal for our university,” said Dr. Bose. “Raising our standings in credible rankings helps attract top-notch graduate students and faculty to Newfoundland and Labrador who, in turn, help make Memorial better equipped to address challenges facing this province, country and our world.

“Our alumni can help us achieve that goal by taking time to participate in reputational surveys, when possible,” he added. “As the old saying goes, there’s power in numbers.”

Jeff Green is a senior communications advisor with the Office of the Vice-President (Research). He can be reached at jeffg@mun.ca.