Faculty of Kinesiology once again ranks as No. 1 sport science school in North America

UCalgary's Faculty of Kinesiology has maintained its position within an exclusive, international class of sports science schools. For the second time, the faculty is ranked No. 1 in North America according to the ShanghaiRanking’s Global Ranking of Sport Science Schools and Departments, and 11th out of 429 universities in the world.

“This is truly remarkable. I am very proud of our faculty’s accomplishments in human movement, sport, and health and wellness research," says Dr. Penny Werthner, dean of kinesiology. "Our faculty members are world-renowned leaders and researchers in their respective fields. Their work is changing how we understand the critical importance of movement for both health and performance, and our students have the opportunity to learn and work alongside our terrific faculty members.”

• Pictured above: Dr. Juan Murias, PhD, and his team in the lab conducting exercise physiology research in 2019. Clockwise from far left: PhD student Calaine Inglis, PhD student Rafael Azevedo, postdoc Danilo Iannetta, Murias, Anmol Mattu.

Kinesiology faculty members are experts in areas of human performance and mental and physical health such as biomechanics, exercise physiology, concussion, neuroscience, nutrition, wearable technologies, exercise and sport psychology, injury prevention and rehabilitation, and leadership and social aspects of human movement and sport.

“Our goal is to improve the health and mobility for all, from youth to older individuals, and from recreation participants, elite athletes to Olympians, as well for those with a disability or surviving a disease,” says Werthner. 

Methodology for rankings

The candidate universities selected must be either a sport university or have a sport-related unit. In total, 429 universities with 485 sport-related units were selected and ranked. Bibliometric data are collected from the Web of Science database with a time frame of five years. The criteria are based on research output, research quality and international collaboration.

Universities are ranked on the following indicators of academic and research performance:

• Papers indexed in Web of Science
• Citations in papers
• Citations per paper
• Papers published in top 25% journals
• Percent of papers with international co-authorship

ShanghaiRanking Consultancy is a fully independent organization dedicated to research on higher education intelligence and consultation. In 2016, ShanghaiRanking started publishing the performance of institutions with sport science schools and departments. It has been the official publisher of the Academic Ranking of World Universities since 2009.