MONTREAL - McGill University is the only Canadian school in the top 25 of the QS World University Rankings, the seventh consecutive year that the prestigious school has been so honoured.
McGill was 19th in the rankings, down one spot from last year. The school, which has 34,000 students, earned its highest marks in life sciences and biomedicine (22nd). Four of Montreal’s largest hospitals are affiliated with McGill, and the school is also a leading medical research centre. McGill also placed well in social sciences (27th) and arts and humanities (28th).
“We strive for that, we work hard for it,” university provost Anthony Masi told QMI Agency on Wednesday.
“We certainly don’t manage to the rankings but we’re glad when rankings recognize the work that we put in.”
The QS rankings rate such indicators as quality of research, graduate employability and student-faculty ratio. Cambridge knocked Harvard out of its customary spot at the top of the list, which is traditionally dominated by American and European institutions.
Three other Canadian schools made the top 100: the University of Toronto was 29th, the same spot as last year; the University of British Columbia was 44th, down from 40th in 2009; and the University of Alberta was 78th, compared with the No. 59 spot it garnered last year.
Peter Lewis, associate vice-president for research at the University of Toronto, says the school is proud of its ranking, noting that the overall rankings are just part of the picture. In a telephone interview from Toronto, Lewis noted that U of T ranked highly in five key discipline areas.
“Natural sciences, life sciences, engineering, social sciences and arts and humanities,” he said. “We are in the top 17 by that criteria.”
While McGill continues to place near the top in national and international rankings, officials say its success is fragile.
McGill principal and vice-chancellor Heather Munroe-Blum recently told a legislature commission on education that the quality and performance of Quebec universities is threatened by underfunding. Quebec has the lowest tuition fees in Canada, typically about $2,000 per year. Munroe-Blum called on the province to bring tuition fees up to the Canadian average, just one part of a new financing model suggested by the school’s administration.
“McGill has had great success in the past and we’re still continuing that success,” Masi said. “But we look around us and we see others are closing the gap fast.”
McGill moved its MBA program to a totally self-funded model this fall, with tuition jumping to $29,500 from about $2,000 per year.
