By McGill Reporter staff
It’s now an even dozen. For the 12th year in a row, Maclean’s magazine has ranked McGill as the top university in Canada among institutions with medical schools and a broad range of PhD programs.
McGill once again ranked first in the “medical-doctoral” category in scholarships and bursaries for students, as well as in social sciences and humanities grants relative to faculty size. Maclean’s published the results online Wednesday evening.
“Our leading position in scholarships and bursaries in this ranking underscores our commitment to ensuring accessibility to education for all talented students, regardless of their financial means,” said Principal Suzanne Fortier.
“As we always note, rankings are not an exact science, and different rankings measure different things,” Prof. Fortier added. “But we are proud of the qualities and efforts that have kept us atop the Maclean’s ranking for the past 12 years.”
McGill maintained the top spot despite having a per-student operating budget in the bottom 25 per cent of the 49 universities in the Maclean’s rankings. On this indicator, Quebec universities comprise the bottom four medical-doctoral universities.
As for other Quebec universities, Université de Montréal ranked 11th over all in the medical/doctoral category, followed by Université Laval in 12th and Université Sherbrooke in 13th. Concordia University maintained its 10-place finish in the Comprehensive Universities ranking, while UQAM remained in 12th place in that category. Bishop’s University jumped from 12th position last year to ninth in this year’s ranking of Primarily Undergraduate universities.
Earlier this fall, McGill was named the top Canadian university in the annual QS World University Rankings, standing 30th globally among the nearly 1,000 universities surveyed. McGill has been ranked the top Canadian university for 11 of the 13 years that the QS/THE rankings have been published, apart from in 2013 and 2014. The QS rankings are based on several factors including academic reputation, student-to-faculty ratio and citations per faculty. McGill earned high marks for academic reputation, employer reputation, and the ratio of international faculty and international students. In the rankings by subject, the University scored highest in the Engineering – Minerals and Mining category, placing 13th worldwide.
Montreal-area universities are major contributors to the region’s economy, according to a recent study by the consulting firm KPMG. The study was commissioned by the universities along with the Chambre de commerce du Montréal métropolitain and Montréal International.
“Canada’s excellent universities attract talented, highly engaged students and professors – locally, nationally and internationally,” said Prof. Fortier. “I am proud that our brilliant students, top-flight researchers, and dedicated staff continue to make McGill one of the world’s leading universities.”