McGill takes top spot in Maclean's annual university rankings
Leads with best students, reputation for highest quality and strong research performance
McGill University advanced into the number one position in Maclean's annual university rankings issue, which hits the stands this week, sharing the top spot with the much larger University of Toronto in the medical doctoral category. Innovative research, outstanding undergraduate students and a reputation for the "highest quality" are among the primary strengths that earned McGill the top position for research-intensive universities with medical schools.
McGill scored at the top of the class in several key areas, including average entering grade of undergraduate students and the international character of the student body. It also earned high marks for the levels of research funding garnered by its professors.
"Our progress and standing reflect the high quality of our students and our emphasis on quality in everything we do," said Heather Munroe-Blum, Principal and Vice-Chancellor of McGill University. "We place strong emphasis on student life and learning, informing teaching through our research, recruitment and retention efforts, and outreach to the public.
"Everyone at McGill — our students, faculty and staff — works hard to excel and these rankings reflect that excellence," she said.
McGill advanced strongly in several categories, including reputation among industry and education leaders for overall quality and "most innovative." McGill is first in the country for "highest quality."
McGill is consistently ranked among the best public research universities in the world. McGill's first-place tie in Maclean's reinforces other recent surveys of universities in Canada and the world. Research Infosource, Canada's leading research data service, ranked McGill as Canada's most research-intensive university, and named the school as "Research University of the Year" in the medical doctoral category. Also, the Times Higher Education Supplement survey of the world's best universities ranked McGill as Canada's top school overall and one of the 25 best in the world.
The Maclean's rankings include three categories of universities: medical doctoral, comprehensive and primarily undergraduate. The medical doctoral rankings category is reserved for universities, such as McGill, that have major research and PhD programs, as well as medical schools.
