If you're a student still contemplating which Canadian university to attend this school year, a new global ranking may help you make your final decision.

Shanghai Ranking released its 2023 Academic Ranking of World Universities. Among the 1,000 institutions, only two Canadian universities cracked the top 50 best schools in the world.

The University of Toronto came in 24th place globally, and first in Canada, with a total score of 39.7 out of 100. Its best-ranked areas of study include sociology, medical technology, psychology, and pharmacy and pharmaceutical sciences.

Toronto's first-class university dropped down two spots from its 2022 ranking.

OUT NOW🎊 ShanghaiRanking’s Academic Ranking of World Universities #ARWU 2023 #ShanghaiRanking #universitiesExplore the full results here: https://t.co/WcK5PA9UKW pic.twitter.com/TMUN3tgFax

— ShanghaiRanking (@ShanghaiRanking) August 15, 2023

UBC takes the cake on the West Coast, placing 44th globally and second in Canada. Its best-ranked subjects include geography, transportation science and technology, ecology and telecommunication engineering.

UBC didn't budge from its 2022 ranking but dropped two spots from 2021.

U of T and UBC aren't the only schools that made the extensive list.

The University of Alberta saw its best placement ever on this prestigious ranking. It placed 91st globally and fourth in Canada.

McGill placed third in Canada and 70th overall.

But which university is the best in the world?

It might not come as a surprise to many that Harvard University took gold, scoring 100 per cent on the ranking.

Two other American schools rounded out the top three — Stanford and MIT.

The report considers six factors when ranking world universities.

This includes the number of alumni and staff winning Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals, the number of highly cited researchers, the number of articles published in journals of Nature and Science, the number of articles indexed in Science Citation Index Expanded and Social Sciences Citation Index in the Web of Science, and per capita performance of a university.