Maritime universities rank highly in Maclean's magazine survey

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By James Foster
Times & Transcript Staff

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Once again, Mount Allison University has been named the top undergraduate school in Canada by Maclean's magazine, which also ranks some other New Brunswick institutions highly.

Sackville's Mount A has been ranked as Canada's number one undergrad university by Maclean's a record 13 times in the 19-year history of the rankings, and has never placed lower than second. No other university has led its category so many times.

"We are very pleased with the results," president and vice-chancellor Dr. Robert Campbell says.

"Our approach has always been to mix the best features of Mount A's past with the new and innovative in an intimate, high-quality environment. From campus to curriculum, facilities to programming, students to professors and so on, we see the benefit and success of this approach in all that we do."

Mount Allison received top or high marks in many categories in the 2009 rankings, including Student Awards, Faculty Awards, Library Holdings and Support and Student-to-Faculty Ratio.

In the reputational part of the survey which asked experts, educators and community leaders for their views on quality, innovation and leadership at Canadian universities, Mount Allison ranked fourth overall in its category and placed in the top five for Best Overall, Highest Quality and Most Innovative.

St. Thomas University in Fredericton ranked 14th overall in its category of primarily undergraduate universities, up from 19th last year and 18th the year before that.

University spokesman Jason Humphrey says the improvement is the second best of any university in its category.

The rankings have some value in helping students assess which university to attend or where the university might look inward towards making improvements, Humphrey says, but it serves as only one indicator among many for those purposes.

"We do put some stock in it, but we still take some issue with their methodology," Humphrey says.

For example, a recent Globe and Mail university ranking placed STU much higher as it put more value on students' experience there. As well, the Maclean's survey puts some emphasis on student awards for which STU students cannot qualify.

Humphrey hopes prospective students would do more in-depth research when choosing an institution, for example by visiting the campus, talking to students, alumni and staff, attending open house events such as the one they are hosting this week and even sitting in on a class.

"We are open to that, too," he says.

The Université de Moncton did not take part in the survey for the very reasons that STU urges the results be viewed with a degree of caution.

"We are really not that comparable with the universities in our category," UdeM spokeswoman Thérèse Thériault explains.

For example, where some universities strive to attract elite-level students and thus would score big in some categories in the survey, UdeM aims to include students from all academic levels. Thériault says her university's success can be partly measured by the gains in enrolment the institution is enjoying while those numbers are declining at some other universities.

The University of New Brunswick received relatively high marks in surveys conducted among their own students, particularly when it comes to ranking their teachers's abilities to teach. Among the various categories that students were polled about UNB, the Saint John campus consistently outranked the results obtained from students on the Fredericton campus.

Several Maritime universities fared well in the magazine's findings and Mount A's Campbell tipped his hat to their work.

"Once again, the quality of the Maritime university experience is borne out," Campbell says.

Campbell said Mount A is not resting on its laurels and will have an "important announcement" on Monday.

The magazine said Mount Allison students, on a per capita basis, win more awards than any of their peers at other institutions and the faculty follow closely behind, coming in second on the awards indicator.

Placing well on operating budget expenditures per student, spending on the library, number of library volumes per student and the reputational survey all contributed to a winning score.