Where to Study: Canada Vs. Australia

Australian National University by Bidgee / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 2.5

Let’s see how the top Canadian and Australian universities do in the global rankings and then dig down into how well they score in domestic surveys in each respective country. There is no definite ranking. Like the universities themselves, they all compete with each other and often have a distinct focus implicit in their methodology. Here are the top 5 Canadian and Australian universities in each of the three above mentioned surveys. Remember, you can dig down into individual subject matter rankings in the some of these surveys to get more detail.

Where to Study: Canada vs. Australia

If you are considering studying abroad at a university or college, there is a multi-step decision process that you should go through to reach a choice on what is a very important decision for you and your family. As explained by the University of Waterloo’s Nello Angerilli, you will likely have to make the following choices:

 

Do You Want to Study Abroad?

Clearly there are costs and advantages to going to a foreign country to complete or start your post-secondary education. The cost in most English-speaking countries like Australia, Canada, the USA, and the UK, is about the cost of a house, say US$ 150,000 to US$ 250,000 for an undergraduate degree. The advantage is you will be studying in English (assuming you choose an English-speaking country), and will gain familiarity with the country and make acquaintances and contacts that may help you when looking for work. Plus, you will have a degree from an institution that is recognized by employers in your adopted country and elsewhere as well, depending on the school’s ranking.

 

What Country Would You Like to Study in?

An important fact pointed out by Angerilli, a university administrator with decades of experience in several countries, is the OECD overall ranking of a country’s education system. Countries with high overall rankings have less variation in quality of education between their top and the bottom ranked universities. That means if you don’t get into your school of choice, your second choice or even third choice will still offer a quality education. The Program for International Student Assessment or PISA tests 15-year-olds’ ability in reading, math, science and problem-solving. It can be seen as a proxy for the basic quality of a country’s educational system. In the 2012 results, Canada ranked 9^th. (China produces separate rankings for the Chinese Mainland, for Hong Kong, and for Macao, and we have excluded highly-ranked Liechtenstein from the sample because of its very small size.) Australia ranked 15^th just ahead of Ireland at 16^th while New Zealand ranked 19^th. The UK ranked 22^nd while the USA came in at a disappointing 32^nd with a mean PISA score slightly below the OECD average. While it is clear that, in most ranking systems, universities in the USA occupy much of the top 10, or top 20 spots, the variability in the quality of education across the large number of colleges and universities in the USA is something to be aware of. Few people get into Harvard or MIT and your 2^nd and 3^rd options are important in deciding which country to choose.

 

Which City Do You Want to Study in?

In a country like the USA, you have an overwhelming amount of choice from Seattle to Miami, from Boston to San Diego and everywhere in between. Remember however, that you are likely looking for a safe, stable environment where you can focus on studying and achieving your post graduate goals, be it employment or further education. Or both. In countries like Canada and Australia the choice is not nearly as widespread as in the USA but cities like Toronto, Sydney, Melbourne, Montreal, or Vancouver are among the most livable cities in the world according to Economist Intelligence Unit rankings. They are also important economic centres where much of the highly paid work is to be found.

 

What area of study are you interested in?

Medicine? Law? Information technology? Or a General Arts degree? Perhaps Social Sciences which often means Economics. Or how about Environmental Sciences? If the latter is your choice of study then at QS Top Universities rankings you will find 3 Australian universities just outside the top 10 in Environmental Sciences:

• The University of Queensland at 11^th and
• The Australian National University and The University of Melbourne sharing 12^th spot.
• The University of British Columbia comes in 27^th.

In Medicine the rankings place:

• The University of Melbourne at 12^th while
• The University of Toronto comes in just two places back at 14^th.
• The University of Sydney is 17^th while
• Montreal’s McGill comes in at 26^th.

If Computer Science and Information Systems is where you plan to focus your studies, then:

• The Australian National University in Canberra (ACT) is at 17^th with a 5+ stars rating while
• The University of Toronto is close behind at 19^th.
• The University of Waterloo, with its pioneering work-study co-op program, comes in at 24^th,  while
• The University of New South Wales comes in at 29^th. Both Waterloo and NSW have 5+ stars ratings in Computer Science.

Having made a decision on each of the above choices, you now have to ask yourself what university or college do I want to study? As pointed out by University of Waterloo’s Angerilli, there are several factors that go into picking a specific school for post-secondary studies:

• How successful are graduates in the job market after they complete their studies?
• Can you work part-time while studying? A great way to gain experience and start or add to your resume.
• Are you able to stay and work for at least a year or two once you have graduated? International job experience can be a plus in today’s mobile world, especially if you can work in countries like Canada or Australia, as well as of course, the USA or the UK.
• How competitive are the entrance requirements? Is it because the university’s graduates are in high demand on the job market or is it because of government policies that constrain the size of entrants? This is the case in some Medical Schools in Canada. You want to be with the brightest and the best.
• What scholarships are available to gifted students, should you happen to qualify? A scholarship looks good on any resume.
• Finally, how well does the university rank in domestic rankings? This tends to be a good indicator of the quality of teaching and student satisfaction rather than its success as a research centre as is the case in some global studies like China’s respected Academic Ranking of World Universities that focuses on hard science and research capacity more than the quality of teaching.

With all this in mind, let’s see how the top Canadian and Australian universities do in the global rankings and then dig down into how well they score in domestic surveys in each respective country. A word of caution. There is no definite ranking. Like the universities themselves, they all compete with each other and often have a distinct focus implicit in their methodology. Sometimes they seem overtly political, like the Global University Ranking, which is based in Russia and ranked Moscow State University in 5^th place ahead of Harvard and Cambridge.

The acknowledged Top 3 surveys are:

• Times Higher Education (THE) Rankings: This British survey, judges research-universities across all their core missions; teaching, research, knowledge transfer and international outlook which means in part how diverse the school is. It uses 13 performance indicators that are grouped into 5 areas; Teaching 30%; Research 30%; Citations (of Research articles) 30%; Industry income and innovation 2.5%; International outlook, staff, students, and research 7.5%. Has an academic outlook.
• QS World University Rankings: Formerly partners with THE, they parted ways in 2009. The QS World University Rankings is reputation centred, with 50% of any ranking derived from the surveys. British based as well, they divide their surveys by subject, faculty, and geographic area, surveying universities in Asia, Latin America, and The BRIC countries as well. Assess schools in individual subject matter and places emphasis on students and employers views of the schools surveyed.
• Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU): A China-based survey that was developed in 2003 to assess how well Chinese universities were doing against other world universities. Focuses on Research, including how many Nobel Prize winners come from any given university that were doing research while actually at the university. It also takes into consideration factors like; number of highly cited research articles as chosen by Thompson Reuters news agency; number of articles published in Nature & Science journals; number of articles in the Science Citations Index and the Social Sciences Citation Index – measures of academic research output essentially; and the Per Capita Performance of the university to balance out for size of the student body and faculty. As mentioned above, this is a good measure of hard research but is not a good index at ranking the quality of teaching in the humanities for example.

Here are the top 5 Canadian and Australian universities in each of the three above mentioned surveys. Remember, you can dig down into individual subject matter rankings in the some of these surveys to get more detail.

 

THE rankings: Arts & Humanities 2014-5 Top 100

Rank	University	score
15	The University of Toronto	75.6
16	Australian National University	75.2
18	The University of Sydney	72.1
19	The University of Melbourne	71.9
26	McGill University	65.2

 

QS World University Rankings 2015/5

Queen’s College, University of Melbourne by Donaldytong / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0

Rank	University	Score and QS Stars¹
20	The University of Toronto	92.4 (no stars)
21	McGill University	91.5 (no stars)
25	Australian National University	89.7 (5+ stars)
33	The University of Melbourne	86.5 (no stars)
37	University of Sydney	84.3 (no stars)

¹ A quality certification separate from the rankings.

 

ARWU

Vancouver School of Theology by Leoboudv / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0

Rank	University	Socre	National Rank
24	The University of Toronto	41.8	1
37	The University of British Columbia	35.1	2
44	The University of Melbourne	32.6	1
67	McGill University	28.3	3
74	Austrlian National University	27.4	2

What these tables show is that for hard science and research, Canadian universities seem to have an edge on their Australian counterparts but in more general surveys, like the Times Higher Education rankings for Arts & Humanities, the Australian universities take more of the top 5 spots. While the ACT, or Canberra, might not be as exciting a city as Sydney, all the above universities claim first class campuses in highly rated cities like Melbourne, Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal, and Sydney and ACT of course. And all of these cities are very good places to start looking for a job when graduation ceremonies are over. And both Australia, with its Temporary Graduate visa (subclass 485), and Canada with its Post Graduate Work Permit Program (PGWPP) that can be valid up to 3 years and is a step towards gaining permanent residence through the Canadian Experience Class, (CEC) program, offer work visas and/or permits for graduates from local universities. A good thing to keep in mind when choosing where to study abroad.

Study in Canada

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WHERE TO STUDY: CANADA VS. AUSTRALIA PART 2 – LESS FAMOUS SCHOOLS: Canada vs. Australia: Digging Deeper into the School Rankings

As we outlined in our previous article on the top Australian and Canadian universities, once you decide to study abroad, you then face a choice of which country to choose, and which city to choose to live and study in. You may also wish to work during and after your studies. While both Canada and Australia have highly ranked universities, it is always a good idea to compare the depth of options available. That means looking at mid-ranked universities which can still offer great value, as well as community colleges or technical schools that offer diplomas in careers you might with to consider. There’s a lot more on offer than just scrambling for a place in Med School at The University of Melbourne or University of Toronto.

 

Mid-Ranked Universities

University of Queensland by Sedination / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0

Do not think of these schools as middling or mediocre by any means. These are universities that either just fell short of the best 5 rankings by Canadian or Australian schools on a global scale that we highlighted in our last article, or are highly ranked in domestic Canadian or Australian rankings, but less so in global rankings. Part of the reason is they often do not have as high a research profile as the top ranked schools, but do very well in terms of undergraduate teaching quality.

The following summarizes those schools that rank relatively highly in global surveys but did not make it into the top 5. We use the same 3 surveys: Times Higher Education (THE), QS World University Rankings, and Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU). The THE survey focuses on academic reputation, the QS survey focuses more on student and employer satisfaction, while the ARWU survey is research-results oriented with a science and engineering emphasis. All 3 surveys are internationally recognized and are often used in by governments, corporations, schools, or students and parents themselves.

University	THE Rank	QS Rank	AWSU Rank
1. The University of Queensland, Brisbane	67	43	85
2. Monash University, Melbourne	44	70	101-150
3. The University of New South Wales, Sydney	100	48	101-150
4. The University of Western Australia, Perth	–	89	88 (4-6 in Australia)
5. The University of Alberta, Edmonton	–	84	101-150 (5-6 in Canada)
6. Universite de Montreal	–	83	88 (4 in Canada)¹
7. McMaster University, Hamilton	–	113	90 (4 in Canada)
8. The University of Adelaide	–	100	151-200 (8 in Australia)
9. Macquarie University, Sydney	67	254	201-300 (9 in Australia)
10. York University, Toronto	97	421-430	401-500 (19-21 in Canada)

¹ The curriculum is mostly in French although some thesis presentations and other work may be presented in another language like English.

What this table shows is the subjectivity of each ranking – or the difference in focus of methodology, if you like, between various ranking systems. For example, Macquarie and York Universities come close to the bottom in the QS and AWSU rankings but come in the top 100 in the THE survey. At the same time many schools that do reasonably well in QS and AWSU do not appear in the THE top 100. It is always a good idea to use several rankings only as a general guide, like an index in a library, and dig further to see what any specific school has to offer. For example, if your interest is Modern Languages then The Australian National University and University of Toronto both rank very well at 14 in the QS survey while the University of Melbourne is at 23. In Geography, a subject mattered dominated by British schools according to the QS rankings, you will find the University of British Columbia, The Australian National University, and University of Toronto at 10, 11, and 12. Remember, use several rankings and do further research to see what school suits you best.

 

Community Colleges and Technical Institutes

Canada

Community Colleges are found in urban, suburban, and rural locations in both Canada and Australia. Because most international students, as well as immigrants, choose to locate in larger urban areas, we will focus on Colleges and Institutes in Toronto and Sydney. While international and even domestic ranking systems at the community college and technical school level are hard to find, we can use in the case of Toronto, the entrance requirements for individual subjects or programs within the Ontario Community College system. The higher the requirements, the more in-demand these occupations are. For example:

• Centennial College: Paramedic (9101) requires 75% average in English, Math, Biology, and Physics or Chemistry as minimum entrance standards. In fact, to be competitive, you will need an average of 90 – 95% over the 4 courses.
• Centennial College: Practical Nursing (9350) also requires 75% in the same 4 courses and to be competitive you will need an overall average of 80 – 85% in the 4 courses.
• George Brown College: Dental Hygiene (5124) requires a 70% minimum in English and Biology and a 60% minimum in Chemistry, Math, and Physics.
• OCAD University: The former Ontario College of Art & Design is a highly reputable institute with a minimum academic requirement of 70% as well as 70% in senior level academic English for international students. You must also submit a portfolio of your work or a writing sample.

 

Australia

In Australia the Technical and Further Education, (TAFE), colleges or institutes are state funded and operated and provide tertiary vocational training under the National Training System and Australian Qualifications Framework in a wide range of areas including:

• Hospitality
• Tourism
• Construction
• Visual Arts
• Information Technology

In New South Wales, as well as in other states, they issue a variety of certificates and diplomas that can often be used as partial credits towards a Bachelor’s degree. They include:

• Certificate I, II, III, and IV
• Diplomas
• Advanced Diplomas
• Graduate Certificates
• Graduate Diplomas

In Sydney you have several TAFE colleges and institutes:

• Northern Sydney Institute (NSI): Offers online, classroom, and workplace training and programs. It offers a wide variety of courses from Automotive to Children’s Services, to Hospitality to Marketing and Media, as well as Information Technology and Communication.
• South Western Sydney Institute (SWSI) is an enormous college with 73,000 students across about 10 colleges in the Sydney area. The award winning institution offers over 700 courses across a wide variety of areas and have participated in international skills training programs across Asia and the Middle East.
• Sydney TAFE (formerly Sydney Institute of Technology) has 7 colleges across 8 campuses and offers a variety of courses from Architecture to Fashion and Graphic Design as well as Health and Life Sciences, Nursing and Real Estate among others.

Go here for entrance requirements to TAFE colleges in New South Wales. Remember that TAFE colleges and institutes will help you achieve certification in Australia which means you can start working as a full-time professional assuming you have the required visa.

Finally, in the case of both Australia, which offers a Temporary Graduate visa (subclass 485), and Canada which has in place a Post Graduate Work Permit Program (PGWPP) that is valid up to 3 years, depending on the length of your academic program, and is a step towards gaining permanent residence through the Canadian Experience Class (CEC) program, offer work visas and/or permits for graduates from local colleges and institutes.

 

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