远渡重洋海外留学对每一个中国留学生来说都是一个严峻的挑战，不仅仅是学业上更是生活上的。学校选择的背后不仅仅是学习环境，更是选择一个要生活多年的城市——是否住在一个安全的社区？附近是否有便捷的服务设施？能否经常享用家乡的味道？……所有这些都是无法从普通的大学排名里找到的，而真正身处异乡才会发现其实真的很重要！

海外留学的收获不仅仅是学位，更是独立生活的经历，选择一所大学就将选择一段学习和生活的经历，而金平果大学排名将这种生活因素也考虑到大学排名的因素之中，为大家提供一个全新的大学排名的留学指数，其指数越大，就越适合我国大学生去留学。

此次“金平果”重磅推出的是加拿大大学排名，在排名中不仅考虑科研、教学、国际化等业务指标，还将大学所在城市的生活服务因素也纳入考虑之中，这里包括学费、房租、物价等城市生活成本；也有犯罪率、就业率、气候、医疗和交通便利度等生活因素，甚至连华裔人口的数量也计入其中。将这些生活指数与传统的大学排名指标结合起来，最后得到大学留学指数排名前30强如表1所示。

表1  2020年加拿大大学留学指数排名前30强

Building a Comprehensive University Ranking for Chinese Students Studying in Canada

Chinese Academy of Science and Education Evaluation, Hangzhou Dianzi University

University rankings are rankings of institutions in higher education which have been ranked on the basis of various combinations of factors: Quality of teaching, research excellence, ability to attract funding, and so on. However, none of the rankings gives a comprehensive overview of the strengths of the universities ranked because all rankings select a range of easily quantifiable characteristics to base their results on. Unfortunately, although most of those numbers or indicators have nothing to do with what young students will experience in their university life, these rankings are generally regarded as the bible for choosing the next destination in higher education. While local students could visit the university campus and feel the real university life, international students have to make their decisions on the basis of these ranking reports.

According to Citizenship and Immigration Canada, China is the largest source country of foreign students in Canada, contributing more than one quarter of international students. Chinese students have been experiencing the difficulty in accessing university information when they choose Canada to pursue their higher education. Sometimes the university rankings are used to as a tool evaluating Canadian universities although these rankings only provide very limited information. Comparing with traditional university rankings, a comprehensive ranking offering more detailed information regarding the city, the community as well as other non-educational factors is essential for Chinese students. We believe that such a comprehensive ranking should cover the following information in addition to teaching and research performance reported by traditional university rankings.

·      Location: Considering Chinese students need to live in the city where their universities locate in 4 to 5 years, the cost of living, the rental price, the crime rate, the climate, the health system, the transportation, even the size of Chinese community should be covered by the ranking.

·      Internationalization: Although most Canadian universities establish the international student office to support international students, Chinese students prefer to live in a comfortable international environment. The international environment could be measured by the proportion of international students, the proportion of international faculties, the number of international collaboration publications, and the number of collaboration publication with Chinese scholars.

·      Tuition: Although tuition is not a key factor influencing Chinese students’ decision on studying abroad, the huge difference in the tuition fees among different Canadian universities cannot be ignored.

In order to help Chinese students choose their study abroad destination in Canada, a comprehensive Canadian university ranking is designed and produced by us as an experienced institution for university ranking in China. In the first version of this ranking, we rank the top 30 Canadian universities by five factors, including not only teaching and research but also location, tuition and internationalization. The detailed methodology will be released in the next annual meeting of Canadian Bureau of International Education (CBIE).