Several nationally, and internationally based publications release annual rankings of universities in Canada. Rankings have most often been conducted by magazines, newspapers, websites, governments, or academia. Ranking are established to help inform potential applicants about Canadian universities based on a range of criteria, including student body characteristics, classes, faculty, finances, library, and reputation. Various rankings consider combinations of factors, including funding and endowment, research excellence and/or influence, specialization expertise, admissions, student options, award numbers, internationalization, graduate employment, industrial linkage, historical reputation and other criteria. Various rankings also evaluate universities based on research output. Canadian-based publications have generally limited their evaluations on universities in Canada, whereas internationally based rankings ranked Canadian institutions alongside other higher education institutions around the world.
Several nationally based publication have ranked Canadian universities, the most prominent being the news magazine Maclean's under the name Guide to Canadian Universities which began in 1991. Canadian universities have also ranked in prominent international rankings including the Academic Ranking of World Universities, QS World University Rankings, the Times Higher Education World University Rankings, and the U.S. News & World Report Best Global University Ranking.
Video Rankings of universities in Canada
International-based rankings
A number of Canadian universities, including all members of the U15 Group of Canadian Research Universities, were ranked in the four major international universities rankings, including the Academic Ranking of World Universities, the QS World University Ranking, the Times Higher Education World University Ranking, and the U.S. News & World Report Best Global University Ranking. Nine out of ten provinces have universities placed in international rankings, with Prince Edward Island being the only province whose university was not ranked in the four major rankings.
The following table lists the university's global rank with their national rank in parenthesis.
Notes:
Maps Rankings of universities in Canada
National-based rankings
A number of Canadian-based publications have ranked universities in the Canada. The most prominent of which is Maclean's, a Toronto-based news magazine that has published an annual rankings of Canadian universities since 1991. In addition to the Maclean's ranking, there are other Canadian-based publications that also rank Canadian universities. In 2012, the Toronto-based Higher Education Strategy Associates published a study ranking Canadian Universities based on research strength. The study ranks Canadian Universities in two broad fields: Science and Engineering, and Social Sciences and Humanities.
A number of nationally based organizations have also crafted ranking using input from students and alumni. In 2014, the Toronto-based CampusRanking.ca began publication of its annual Canadian University and College Rankings, focusing on undergraduate education. The student-generated rankings asked over 40,000 undergraduate students and alumni to rate their schools. The survey was done across 135 schools in Canada. This data was used to develop a school matching quiz, MatchU, where students are matched to schools based on their personality type and school preferences. In February 2017, UniversityMagazine.ca, based in Windsor and Edmonton, started publishing its list of Top 10 universities in Canada. UniversityMagazine.ca surveyed undergraduate and graduate students at 96 Canadian universities, using this information to rank the universities
Maclean's
Maclean's rankings focus on taking a measure of the "undergraduate experience". The rankings are split into three categories: schools that focus on undergraduate studies with few to no graduate programs, schools that have both extensive undergraduate studies and an extensive selection of graduate programs and schools that have a professional medical program and a selection of graduate programs.
In addition to these three main categories, Maclean's also produces a reputation ranking for universities, as well as rankings for individual subjects. The reputation ranking ranks the full field of 49 universities without separation by category.
Medical/doctoral universities
The Maclean's ranking of "medical/doctoral universities" includes universities that are heavily research-based, and have a broad range of graduate-level programs.
Comprehensive universities
The Maclean's ranking of "comprehensive universities" includes universities with a significant degree of research activity and a wide range of programs at the undergraduate, graduate, and professional levels.
Primarily undergraduate universities
The Maclean's ranking of "primary undergraduate universities" is for universities that are smaller in size and offer fewer graduate programs than universities found in other categories. Several universities in this category are structured as American-style Liberal arts colleges.
Criticism
The University of Calgary produced a formal study examining the ranking methodology, illuminating the factors that determined its rank and criticising certain aspects of the methodology. The University of Alberta, the University of Toronto and University of Manitoba have expressed displeasure over the ranking system.
Since September 2006, over 20 Canadian universities, including several of the most prestigious and largest universities such as the University of Ottawa, University of Toronto, University of British Columbia, University of Alberta, Concordia University, McMaster University and Dalhousie University, jointly refused to participate. University of Alberta president Indira Samarasekera wrote that Maclean's initially filed a "Freedom of Information" request but that it was "too late" for the universities to respond. Samarasekera further stated, "Most of [the universities] had already posted the data online, and we directed Maclean's staff to our Web sites. In instances where the magazine staff couldn't find data on our Web site, they chose to use the previous year's data."
See also
- College and university rankings
- List of universities in Canada
References
Source of article : Wikipedia