UNIVERSITY RANKINGS
Oshawa cracks Maclean's annual university list
November 5, 2009
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Jennifer Yang
STAFF REPORTER
For high school students applying to universities this year, maybe it's time to consider ... Oshawa?
According to Maclean's magazine's latest ranking of Canadian universities, Oshawa's University of Ontario Institute of Technology is Number 12 in the "primarily undergraduate" category, beating out the likes of Ryerson and Brock universities. This is the first time UOIT has been ranked in Maclean's popular universities issue, which hits newsstands Thursday.
In UOIT's category, institutions which focus on undergraduate education, New Brunswick's Mount Allison placed first for the third year in a row and Nipissing and Cape Breton universities tied for last.
In the "medical doctoral" class of schools, McGill, the University of Toronto and Queen's finished in the top three. And in the "comprehensive" category – schools with "significant" research activity and a wide range of programs at both undergraduate and graduate levels – Simon Fraser clung to its winning position from last year, with York University and the University of Regina tied for second-last. Concordia in Montreal came in last.
UOIT's respectable entry into Maclean's annual roundup was partly due to its first-place ranking in the areas of social sciences and humanities grants, as well as expenditures on student services and library acquisitions.
The last time a university was added to the ranking was in 1998, with the University of Northern British Columbia coming in eighth in the undergraduate category.
UOIT president and vice-chancellor Ronald Bordessa said he's pleased his school has become a contender. Since opening in 2003, UOIT's undergraduate student population has ballooned to 6,265 from 947. This year marks another first for the region's only university: for the first time, more students are coming from outside Durham.
While Maclean's university rankings are popular among high schoolers and anxious parents alike, it has drawn some criticism from the academic community for its methodology, which largely relied on surveys filled out by the schools themselves. In 2006, at least 22 universities boycotted the Maclean's survey, with University of Toronto president David Naylor deeming it "junk science."
Of this year's 48 ranked universities, 19 refused to fill out the survey, said Joe Chidley, Maclean's editor and associate publisher for special projects. The magazine has also revised its approach, he said, relying on data from Statistics Canada, federal funding agencies, and information on university websites.
Toronto Star