All Posts Tagged With: "Rankings"

Eight universities’ departments among top 50 worldwide

University of Toronto (Jessica Darmanin)

The QS World University Subject Rankings 2013 are out now. The London-based company’s report offers a rare peek at how our school’s history, engineering and law programs—30 subjects in all—are viewed internationally.

Unsurprisingly, the top three universities from the Medical Doctoral category of the Maclean’s University Rankings—the University of Toronto, the University of British Columbia and McGill University—are also the top Canadian schools on the list. Those three are top five in Canada in 29 of 30 subjects and top 50 worldwide in many.

The highest ranked Canadian subject is geography at the University of British Columbia, which is tenth globally. There are also several subjects in the top 15: environmental science at UBC along with medicine, philosophy, linguistics, mathematics, sociology, geography, education, English and history at University of Toronto.

Continue reading High grades for Canadian schools in subject rankings

From the Maclean’s Professional Schools Issue

Click on the image below to see the chart in a new window. Once there, click again to zoom in.

Subject rankings for science, medicine, engineering…

Here are the top five highest ranked universities in the QS World University Rankings by Subject and the rankings of Canadian schools in science, engineering, and health disciplines. For arts, humanities and business, click here. For the full rankings, visit TopUniversities.com.

Pharmacy

1. Harvard University (United States)
2. University of Cambridge (United Kingdom)
3. National University of Singapore (NUS) (Singapore)
4. University of Oxford (United Kingdom)
5. Karolinska Institute (Sweden)

11. University of Toronto
25. University of Alberta
26. University of British Columbia
29. McGill University
51-100. Western University, Université de Montréal
101-150. University of Waterloo
151-200. Dalhousie University, Laval University, University of Saskatchewan

Medicine

Continue reading How Canadian schools stack up in the QS rankings (part one)

UBC and McGill also score well in global survey

Photo by markus6464/Flikr

The University of Toronto is the best post-secondary institution in the country, according to a new global ranking of universities by subject. As the Montreal Gazette reports, the QS World University Rankings compared universities across 29 disciplines, and is the largest such survey ever completed.

From the Gazette:

U of T ranked No. 1 nationally in 21 of the 29 disciplines, ahead of UBC with six and McGill with two.

Though McGill failed to match the top-10 rankings of Toronto and UBC, it still made the global top 20 in an impressive eight disciplines.

“These rankings provide great news for Canada, pointing to world-class departments in a range of discipline areas,” said Ben Sowter, head of research at QS. “While the U.S. still dominates at an overall institutional level, within narrower subject areas the picture is far more diverse.”

Other Canadian schools to show up on the list were the University of Alberta, McMaster, Université de Québec, the University of Waterloo and Western University. Harvard and MIT scored best overall, placing first in 11 of the 29 disciplines in the survey.

Asian Tigers and Australia dominate new ranking

#34. University of Victoria (Photo by Darren Stone)

University rankings often favour older institutions, because, in many cases, older schools have bigger endowments, more alumni and prestige.

The new QS Top 50 under 50 ranking takes the age-bias into account by removing all the universities founded before 1962.

Young schools are ranked on the same six criteria used in the QS World Top 300 ranking: academic reputation, employer reputation, citations per faculty, student/faculty ratio, international student ratio and international faculty ratio.

But the results are very different. In the World Top 300 rankings, the U.S. and U.K. dominate. Canada has 14 entries, but none are in the Top 50.

Continue reading Only three Canadian universities in “Top 50 under 50″

Survey shows student satisfaction at 25 schools

The annual CUSC survey measures student satisfaction. In 2011, a questionnaire was issued to a random sample of approximately 1,000 undergraduates at each of 25 participating schools. In total, more than 8,500 students responded to questions about everything from academics to support services. Here are the results you’ll want to see if you’re considering one of these schools.

Continue reading The Canadian University Survey Consortium’s 2011 results

How your still-developing brain puts you at risk

Illustration by Ian Phillips and Taylor Shute.

From the 21st Maclean’s University Rankings—on sale now.

Heading off to university is a time-worn rite of passage, one that marks the transition from teen years to adulthood. Despite the new relationships, responsibilities and independence that come with leaving home, however, in our late teens and early twenties, we’re still not fully mature. Our brains keep developing well into these years.

When puberty hits, brain regions responsible for reward and pleasure kick into high gear, according to Temple University psychology professor Laurence Steinberg, author of You and Your Adolescent. But other regions, involved in decision-making and impulse control, are slower to develop—and don’t mature until our mid-twenties. “The accelerator is activated before there’s a good braking system in place,” he says. Teens in mid-to-late adolescence are prone to risky decisions, seeking rewards without weighing the consequences. Starting a new life on campus, these brain changes affect students’ lives in all sorts of ways—maybe pushing them to stay out drinking all night, sign up for a semester abroad in Europe, sleep right through class, or ask their crush out on a date.

Continue reading What’s on your mind?

McGill, Simon Fraser and Mount Allison on top again in 2011

For the seventh year in a row, McGill University is ranked first in the Medical Doctoral category in the Maclean’s University Rankings, once again beating one-time king, the University of Toronto. Toronto, second again this year, has placed first in the category 12 times over the past 21 years. In third is the University of British Columbia. Queen’s is fourth. The University of Alberta is fifth.

So what’s given McGill such an edge? For one thing, McGill’s students win more national awards than Toronto’s. Another big factor is its student-faculty ratio. Toronto places dead last in the category (15), while McGill is fifth. On top of that, McGill dedicates more of its budget to scholarships and bursaries than any other school in the category. Toronto’s big advantage is its library collections—U of T trounces McGill in all four library-related categories. In the annual reputational survey, McGill has a slight edge too, achieving first place once again. But Toronto is catching up, having improved two positions since last year, from fourth to second. Two other Medical Doctoral universities improved by two spots on the reputational survey: Dalhousie University and the University of Sherbrooke.

In the Comprehensive Category, Simon Fraser University (1), the University of Victoria (2), the University of Waterloo (3), the University of Guelph (4), and Memorial University (5) all maintain their top-five positions. The biggest news in this category is that Brock University, Wilfrid Laurier University and Ryerson University all make their debuts, albeit in the bottom half. The three schools were moved into the Comprehensive category this year after recognizing both growth in their populations and increased graduate school offerings. Laurier has the highest debut—eleventh—on the strength of its reputation (7), faculty awards (5) and medical/science grants (4). In the reputational survey, Waterloo placed first among Comprehensive schools—as it does most years—while Simon Fraser, Guelph, Victoria and Ryerson rounded-out the top five.

In the Primarily Undergraduate category, the University of Prince Edward Island showed the biggest change, thanks in part to a strong showing in student awards, vaulting past Trent, St. Francis Xavier and Bishop’s to tie for fourth place with Lethbridge. It is bested only by Mount Allison University, Acadia University and the University of Northern British Columbia, which came first, second and third, respectively, in 2011. Mount A’s achievement is particularly impressive: it’s the fifteenth time that the Sackville, N.B. school has taken the top honour—a record number of wins. The University of Moncton also deserves commendation. Moncton moved up to fifteenth position, with the strongest showing on student/faculty ratio and an improved score on the reputational survey.

Maclean’s considers 14 numerical indicators of the quality of students, faculty, libraries and finances to rank 49 universities. Each is placed in one of three categories to recognize differences in levels of research funding, offerings, and the range of graduate programs. This year, three schools (Ryerson, Laurier and Brock) were moved into the Comprehensive category. For our complete 21st annual rankings, plus Canada’s best higher education journalism, pick up your copy of the 2011 Maclean’s University Rankings issue on newsstands Oct. 27. Here are the results:

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

* Indicates a tie

Comprehensive universities have a significant degree of research activity and a wide range of programs at the undergraduate and graduate levels, including professional degrees.

* Indicates a tie

Primarily Undergraduate universities are largely focused on undergraduate education with relatively fewer graduate programs and graduate students.

* Indicates a tie

Want to know more about how we rank? Read Measuring excellence.

From the 2011 Maclean’s Professional Schools Issue

Are a law school’s professors significant contributors to the intellectual life of their discipline? Do a law school’s graduates land the most sought-after jobs in government, the private sector and academia? These are the two questions Maclean’s annual law survey seeks to answer.

All of the data used in the Maclean’s law rankings are publicly available. All focus on law school outputs. Fifty per cent of the overall ranking is determined by faculty quality, and 50 per cent by graduate quality.

The four measures of graduate quality look at the success each law school has had producing graduates able to land the most competitive jobs. The indicators are:

Elite Firm Hiring: Maclean’s calculated how many of each school’s graduates are serving as associates at law firms on Lexpert’s list of the largest firms in Canada across all regions, or at one of the five leading New York firms, according to the employment website Vault. This was done by examining the online biographies of thousands of lawyers at dozens of law firms. To scale this measure to each school, the tally was divided by first-year class size, averaged over the past three years. This measure is worth 20 per cent.

National Reach: This indicator, based on the Elite Firm Hiring measure, is worth 10 per cent. It measures the proportion of each law school’s grads at leading firms who are working at firms other than the three that hired the most grads from this school. It’s a measure of the extent to which leading firms outside a school’s region hire its graduates.

Supreme Court Clerkships: A measure of how many of a school’s graduates have served as clerks at the Supreme Court of Canada, this indicator is worth 10 per cent. There are 27 clerks each year; it is one of the most competitive positions open to graduates. Maclean’s looked at the last six years’ worth of clerks. As with the other measures of graduate quality, the tally was divided by each school’s average first-year enrolment.

Faculty Hiring: Worth 10 per cent, this indicator looks at how many of a school’s graduates are professors at Canadian law schools, with extra weight given to grads hired by faculties other than their alma mater.

Faculty Journal Citations: In this measure of faculty quality, worth 50 per cent, Maclean’s employed the HeinOnline database of legal periodicals. The search included citations in international publications as well as Canadian journals in order to reflect the reality of a globalized academy. The number of citations recorded by each faculty member was measured; the tally for each school was then divided by the size of its faculty.

The methodology behind the Maclean’s law school rankings was created in co-operation with professor Brian Leiter, director of the Center for Law, Philosophy, and Human Values at the University of Chicago. The data were compiled by researcher Jane Bao. Ranking on each indicator and overall rank was determined using the statistical percentile method that Maclean’s has long employed in our annual university rankings. Our statistician was Hong Chen, of McDougall Scientific Ltd. statistical consultants.

Three schools make Forbes’ Top 12 ranking

Schulich at York courtesy of Elango on Flickr

Each year, business magazine Forbes ranks international M.B.A. programs based one single statistic: the return on investment realized five years after graduation. They call this the “5-year M.B.A. gain.” Three Canadian schools round out this year’s Top 12 Non-U.S. M.B.A. Programs:

10. York (Schulich)
The class of 2006 started with an average salary of $36,000 and were earning $121,000 by 2010.
Less tuition, fees and forgone compensation, the “5-year M.B.A. gain” is $47,000.

11. McGill (Desautels)
The class of 2006 started with an average salary of $43,000 and were earning $134,000 by 2010.
Less tuition, fees and forgone compensation, the “5-year M.B.A. gain” is $40,000.

12. UBC (Sauder)
The class of 2006 started with an average salary of $31,000 and were earning $92,000 by 2010.
Less tuition, fees and forgone compensation, the “5-year M.B.A. gain” is $21,000.

To see a comprehensive list of Canadian M.B.A. programs and how they compare, buy the Canadian Business M.B.A. Guide. All figures above are in U.S. dollars.