HEC Montréal among the best global innovative universities
World University Rankings for Innovation (WURI)
July 17, 2025
HEC Montréal participated in the World University Rankings for Innovation (WURI) for the second time, and once again, it performed very well.
Industrial Application
The School was ranked 56th in the world in the Industrial Application category. This year, the School’s projects that were considered for this category were:
- Improving the digital experience with financial services for functionally illiterate people (Professor Constantinos Coursaris, Tech3lab)
- Aerospace aftermarket demand forecast and inventory management with machine learning (Professor Yossiri Adulyasak, Canada Research Chair in Supply Chain Analytics)
This category emphasizes the application of industry-related education and research to generate tangible benefits, moving away from the traditional approach focused solely on academia-driven research and education.
SDG-Based Responses
The School was also ranked 84th in the world in the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG)-Based Responses to Global Challenges category. The project submitted by the School for this category was:
- PACT for the inclusion of immigrants in the workplace (Camille Saade-Traboulsi and Clarisse Broucke, IDEOS Hub)
Global Ranking
HEC Montréal entered the Global Top 400 Innovative Universities ranking this year and finished in 364th position.
Ranking Criteria and Categories
WURI was launched in 2020 by a consortium of universities, and it assesses and ranks universities based on their ability to innovate. This global ranking is renowned for placing emphasis on three criteria:
- Innovation: the innovativeness of the content of the program itself or the process the institution has demonstrated in making its program more effective.
- Implementability: the costs and benefits of its implementation.
- Impact: the scope and intensity of its influence.
The university programs that were submitted for the 2025 edition competed in one or more of the following 16 categories:
- Student Support and Engagement (A1)
- Student Mobility and Openness (A2)
- Industrial Application (A3)
- Entrepreneurial Spirit (A4)
- Crisis Management (A5)
- Ethics and Integrity (A6)
- Technological Development and Application (A7)
- SDG-Based Responses to Global Challenges (A8)
- Visionary Leadership (B1)
- Empowerment-Based Management (B2)
- ESG Trend (B3)
- Culture/Values (B4)
- Funding for Sustainability (B5)
- Infrastructure/Technologies (B6)
- Cost-Effectiveness Management (B7)
- University Brand and Reputation (B8)