All Posts Tagged With: "macleans university rankings"

CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE TOOL The annual Maclean’s rankings assess Canadian universities on a range of performance indicators in six broad areas. The Maclean’s ranking tool lets you create a customized ranking by selecting whichever indicators matter most to you, and deciding how much weight to give to each indicator to contribute to the [...]

CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE TOOL

The annual Maclean’s rankings assess Canadian universities on a range of performance indicators in six broad areas. The Maclean’s ranking tool lets you create a customized ranking by selecting whichever indicators matter most to you, and deciding how much weight to give to each indicator to contribute to the final score.

Here is a description of each indicator used in the Maclean’s ranking tool.

STUDENTS/CLASSES

Student Awards
Maclean’s calculates the number of students over the past five years who have won national academic awards. The list includes 40 fellowship and prize programs, encompassing more than 18,000 individual awards. Each university’s total of student awards is divided by its number of full-time students, yielding a per student count.

Student/Faculty Ratio
To gauge students’ access to professors, Maclean’s measures the number of full-time-equivalent students per full-time faculty member. This student/faculty ratio includes all students, graduate as well as undergraduate.

FACULTY

Awards per Full-time Faculty
Maclean’s calculates the number of faculty over the past five years who have won major national awards from more than 40 awards programs covering a total of 860 awards. To scale for institution size, the award count for each university is divided by each school’s number of full-time faculty.

Social Sciences and Humanities Grants
Maclean’s measures the success of faculty in securing research grants from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), taking into account both the number and the dollar value received in the previous year, and dividing the totals by each institution’s full-time faculty count.

Medical/Science Grants
Maclean’s measures the success of faculty in securing research grants from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), taking into account both the number and the dollar value received in the previous year, and dividing the totals by each institution’s full-time faculty count.

RESOURCES

Total Research Dollars
Maclean’s measures total research dollars, including income from sponsored research, such as grants and contracts, federal, provincial and foreign government funding, and funding from non-governmental organizations. This figure is calculated relative to the size of each institution’s full-time faculty.

Operating Budget
This section examines the amount of money available for current expenses per weighted full-time-equivalent student. Students are weighted according to their level of study—bachelor, master’s or doctorate—and their program of study.

STUDENT SUPPORT

Scholarships & Bursaries
This indicator calculates the percentage of a university’s operating budget spent on scholarships and bursaries.

Student Services
This indicator calculates the percentage of a university’s operating budget spent on student services.

LIBRARY

Expenses
This indicator calculates the percentage of a university’s operating budget allocated to library services.

Acquisitions
This indicator calculates the percentage of the library budget spent on updating the collection. In acknowledging a shift from the traditional library model—books on shelves—to an electronic access model, this measure includes spending on electronic resources.

Holdings per Students
This indicator calculates the number of volumes and volume equivalents per number of full-time-equivalent students.

REPUTATION

Reputational Survey
Maclean’s solicits the views of university officials at each ranked institution, high school guidance counsellors from every province and territory, the heads of a wide variety of national and regional organizations, and CEOs and recruiters at corporations large and small. Respondents rated the universities on quality and innovation.

Happy Movember, #BaldforBieber & Save the Wesmen

Kelly Finnamore/Flickr

1. Movember, one of the most popular fundraisers on Canadian campuses, began today. Perhaps taking a cue from Saskatchewan premier Brad Wall, who challenged his fellow premier Robert Ghiz of P.E.I. to a grow-off, students at the University of Regina’s Carillon student newspaper are asking readers to bet on who can grow the best mo. $5 to vote. Proceeds fight cancer.

2. The 2013 Maclean’s University Rankings are finally here! The 132-page guide includes stories on class size, the viral videos phenomenon, expensive textbooks and, of course, the rankings. Who took home the gold may not surprise you, but the performance of schools like the University of Northern British Columbia, New Brunswick and Trent probably will.

3. A false rumour on Twitter that Justin Bieber had cancer caused a number of fans to shave their heads and tag them under #BaldforBieber. Rachel Herscovici of the Queen’s Journal disapproves.

4. More than 800 people have “liked” a Facebook page called “Save the Wesmen.” The University of Winnipeg is considering changing the name of its Wesmen athletics teams to be more inclusive.

Continue reading What students are talking about today (November 1st edition)

Medical Doctoral universities offer a broad range of Ph.D. programs and have medical schools

For the other two categories, click here.

* Indicates a tie

How one mother coped when her daughter left for school

Photo illustration by Taylor Shute.

From the Maclean’s University Rankings—on newsstands now. Story by Ellen Vanstone.

I wasn’t actually planning to attend college with my daughter Eliza when her acceptance letter arrived in the mail last spring. That would be creepy—like the mother in that Robert Munsch book who stalked her grown-up son, breaking into his house to cuddle him while he slept. I am perfectly aware that the parentally appropriate, non-crazy thing to do when your child leaves home is to let them go and have their own life.

And yet, I still felt there should be some kind of special dispensation in my case—since the school that accepted my child was the Savannah College of Art and Design, on the Savannah River, in Savannah, Ga.

Continue reading If you leave me, can I come, too?

A photographic tour of Canada’s highest ranked schools

For more on how universities stacked up in 2011, click here. For full rankings, plus Canada’s best higher education journalism, pick up the Maclean’s University Rankings issue, on sale October 27.

*Indicates a tie

Tough. Challenging. Rewarding. That’s student life at the Royal Military College

At precisely 7:30 on a cool, damp morning in late October, moments before the sun begins its ascent into an overcast sky, the Parade Square on the campus of the Royal Military College in Kingston, Ont., is filled with about 1,000 cadets wearing camouflage uniforms. They are aligned in a giant U formation, and in the middle stands their cadet wing commander, 21-year-old Nicolas Bouchard, a fourth-year chemical engineering student and army combat engineer.

“I’m throwing you a challenge,” says Bouchard into a microphone. “Anyone who gets either a 95 per cent average at the end of the semester, or anyone who gets 500 on the next PPT [Physical Performance Test], will have an award created in your name.” A hush falls over the cadets. “Correct me if I’m wrong,” Bouchard continues, “but I believe that’s what Russell Crowe really meant [in the movie Gladiator] when he said, ‘What you do in life echoes in eternity.’ ” The speech ends, but a buzz filters through the crowd. At RMC, cadets are used to big challenges, and this one is no exception.

Just getting into the college is difficult. In any given year, the 39 Canadian Forces recruitment centres across the country receive as many as 1,500 applications for the Registered Officer Training Program (ROTP); only about 300 make it into the college. Applicants need at least a 70 per cent high school average, although most have an average greater than 80. And they must successfully complete a series of aptitude tests, interviews and medical examinations. Being well-rounded is also imperative. “A person who has a 95 per cent average but never had a part-time job, played a sport or had a hobby will really struggle here because they have never multi-tasked,” says Commodore William Truelove, RMC’s commandant, who is the head of the institution.

Anyone who makes the cut had better not expect a laid-back transition into university life. Before classes begin in the fall, all first-year cadets take part in their first military training exercise: a three-week boot camp. If you hail from Ontario or the West, the training takes place at RMC; those from Quebec and the Maritimes travel to the Canadian Forces Leadership and Recruit School in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Que., which also serves as a preparatory school for Quebec students who want to complete their first year of CÉGEP and then attend RMC. “The boot camp is a bit of a transition, to say the least, if you just came from sitting on your couch,” notes Bouchard, who was born in Summerside, P.E.I. “It’s like nothing you’ve ever experienced before.”

Upon arrival, cadets have their hair cropped, their cellphones and computers taken away, and their civilian clothes exchanged for military fatigues. Each day brings intense physical training exercises and lectures designed to teach the basics of military life and the officer-like qualities needed to be an effective leader and comrade.

They are also introduced to an idea that could one day alter, or even end, their lives: unlimited liability. “It means you agree to go off and serve your country at the risk of potentially losing your life, as some of our countrymen have done,” says Truelove. “Over the next four years, and through their summer training and courses, you instill in them that reality.”

An unscientific guide to the best and worst in university sports

Top overall

The University of Western Ontario. Last year, the Mustangs won nine OUA (Ontario University Athletics) championships and both the men’s and the women’s national rowing titles, and made it to the final in both football and men’s hockey, and the semifinal in men’s basketball. “There’s a real sports culture at Western,” says Rob Pettapiece, who writes about the Canadian Interuniversity Sports (CIS) league for the CIS Blog—and plenty of jock alum are willing to support the team, in spite of the purple uniforms.

Honourable mention: The UBC Thunderbirds—whose hockey teams now play out of an Olympic venue—have won back-to-back national titles in women’s volleyball, three of the previous six national championships in women’s basketball and 22 of the past 24 national swimming championships. For the past four years, they have been ranked top 10 in basketball, volleyball, soccer, swimming and field hockey, and every couple of years pick up a national title in either soccer or men’s volleyball. While other schools tend to dominate individual sports, UBC spreads its big sports budget widely. Attendance, however, is consistently pathetic.

Honourable mention: University of Alberta, whose men’s and women’s hockey and volleyball teams tend to dominate the Canada West division. Alberta, a traditional powerhouse, has won national titles in every team sport. It consistently fields a bad football team, though—just a warm-up for the real sports, they say in Edmonton.

Top football
Laval University—no contest. Defending national champions the Rouge et Or have won five Vanier Cups in the last 10 years. Laval boasts 18,000 fans per game at PEPS stadium, which recently underwent a $2-million refit. (Western, by comparison, draws 11,000 to its homecoming games.) The program, overseen by ultra-successful head coach Glen Constantin, is flush with cash, and is treated like a pro franchise. It has invested in full-time assistant coaches, with an investors board made up of Quebec business people, and the team goes to Florida for training camp.

Top men’s hockey
In Canada, university hockey plays second fiddle to junior leagues, but the University of New Brunswick Varsity Reds, who have claimed two of the last three national championships, boast a stellar program. Last season, they beat reigning NCAA champions Boston College, whose lineup featured 11 NHL draft choices. UNB standout Rob Hennigar, the Varsity Reds all-time points leader, made the unlikely step from CIS (Canadian Interuniversity Sport) to the NHL, inking a contract with the New York Islanders in 2008.

Top women’s hockey

Back-to-back CIS national champs, the McGill Martlets—who haven’t lost a game in almost two years, dating back to a 2-1 shootout loss to Alberta on Dec. 30, 2007—are the rising women’s hockey powerhouse. Goaltender Charlie Labonte and defenceman Catherine Ward both play for the women’s national team. Martlets head coach Peter Smith is assistant coach of the Olympic national team (previously head coach of the under-21 women’s national team).

Expect McGill’s dominance to continue. Two years ago, the team received a landmark $1-million donation—the biggest ever to a university women’s sports program in Canada. So it’s flush, and has a strong coach with an eye on the country’s top young talent. Smith’s recruiting job isn’t difficult: the appeal of playing for a winning team while surrounded by everything a McGill education and downtown Montreal has to offer is tough to turn down.

Next: Top basketball teams, best rivalry, worst team name, blind arrogance and more

Movers and shakers in education rank universities on their performance

University-bound students are keen to learn as much as possible before deciding which university to attend, quizzing those who may have an opinion worth listening to. Take those opinions and multiply them hundreds of times over and you have the idea behind Maclean’s reputational survey. What do those whose professions put them in a position to form opinions—both about how well universities are meeting the needs of students and how ready their graduates are to embark on successful careers—really think?

To find out what the professionals think about the state of post-secondary education in Canada, Maclean’s solicited the opinion of nearly 12,000 individuals across the country, asking for their views on quality, innovation and leadership at Canadian universities. Those surveyed included university officials at each ranked institution, high school principals and guidance counsellors from every province and territory, the heads of a wide variety of national and regional organizations, plus CEOs and recruiters at corporations large and small.

Respondents were asked to rate Canada’s universities in three categories: Highest Quality, Most Innovative, and Leaders of Tomorrow, the results of which can be found in our newsstand issue, available today. Best Overall (left) represents the sum of the scores for all three categories. Again this year, the University of Waterloo placed first overall among 48 universities on the national reputational ranking, a position the school has successfully captured every year but three during the past 19 years of ranking. Meanwhile, the University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT)—founded in 2003 and being ranked for the first time this year—made a strong showing for a young university, placing 30th overall.

The reputational survey has a regional as well as a national component that divides the country into four key areas: the western provinces, Ontario, Quebec and the Atlantic provinces. All respondents completed a national survey; university officials, principals and guidance counsellors also completed regional ones, allowing them the opportunity to focus on the region they know best. The national and regional surveys are combined to produce the final results. The survey form reminds participants that Maclean’s does not expect them to be familiar with every university, and that we are asking them to provide their views only on those universities about which they have an informed opinion.

The reputational survey achieved an overall response rate of 7.5 per cent. Broken out by groups, the response rates were: 26.3 per cent for university officials; 4.9 per cent for high school principals and guidance counsellors; 6.1 per cent for CEOs, corporate recruiters and heads of organizations.

The high number of respondents (88 per cent) who said they would recommend their university to prospective students illustrates the high satisfaction levels among graduates of masters and doctoral programs. Other results from the survey suggest why those who have followed a course of graduate studies have reason to be happy: fewer than three per [...]

The high number of respondents (88 per cent) who said they would recommend their university to prospective students illustrates the high satisfaction levels among graduates of masters and doctoral programs. Other results from the survey suggest why those who have followed a course of graduate studies have reason to be happy: fewer than three per cent were unemployed; more than 90 per cent of grads worked in professional or management occupations; and the average salary was $76,218.

Would you recommend the university to prospective students? (Click chart to enlarge.)

Source: B.C. University Survey of Graduates from Masters and Doctorate Programs

Graduates were asked if they were employed in jobs related to their program. The study found a high correlation: 60.5 per cent responded that their job was very related to their program and a further 30 per cent indicated that it was somewhat related. Doctoral grads reported a higher correlation with 77 per cent reporting [...]

Graduates were asked if they were employed in jobs related to their program. The study found a high correlation: 60.5 per cent responded that their job was very related to their program and a further 30 per cent indicated that it was somewhat related. Doctoral grads reported a higher correlation with 77 per cent reporting that their jobs were very related compared to 58 per cent for masters grads.

Relationship of main job to graduate program (Click chart to enlarge.)

Source: B.C. University Survey of Graduates from Masters and Doctorate Programs