2020 Factbook

STUDENTS

Enrolment 

Average entering R score* of undergraduates - 2019

Source: CRÉPUQ

Proportion of international students – 2019

[As a percentage of degree-seeking students]
Source: U15 Data Exchange

Proportion of PhD students – 2019

[As a percentage of degree-seeking students]
Source: U15 Data Exchange

FACULTY

RESEARCH

Funding - Fiscal year 2019

[including affiliated hospitals]
Source: CAUBO 

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198 government- and industry-sponsored RESEARCH CONTRACTS valued at $20 million (excluding affiliated hospitals) in FY2019-20.
 

26 CLINICAL TRIAL agreements signed between April 2019 and March 2020 (internal reporting calendar).
 

Revenue of $5 million from a total of 83 CLINICAL TRIALS in FY 2019-20. 
 

174 active licenses and options, including 26 licenses and options to license granted to the private sector in 2019.
 

McGill reported 125 disclosures, submitted 61 national and international patent applications, and received 29 new patents in 2019.

[All contracts and clinical trials figures exclude affiliated hospitals.]

RANKINGS

FACULTIES and SCHOOLS
 

FINANCE AND ADMINISTRATION
 

For a detailed breakdown of McGill University’s financial position, operations and cash flow, please see our most recent Audited Financial Statements, for the year ended April 30, 2018.

Financial highlights 2019-20

Total combined sources of revenue
2020: $1.44 billion

Total Student Assistance from Operating Fund 

[By fiscal year] 

McGill continues its commitment to accessibility by contributing at least 30% of incremental net tuition towards student aid and support, taking into account incremental amounts received from donations. McGill maintains its commitment  to provide financial support to students by contributing $34.2M of its unrestricted fund towards student aid and support in 2019-2020.

SUSTAINABILITY

91 per cent of McGill community members are willing to change their personal habits to reduce their environmental impact. Community members who are interested in learning how to live, work, and study more sustainably are invited to participate in the McGill Sustainable Workplace and Event Certification programs, or stay tuned for upcoming workshops or training sessions offered by the Office of Sustainability.

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89 per cent of community members believe that it is important that McGill has a strong commitment to sustainability. Learn about McGill’s commitment to sustainability—including how we plan to get to zero-waste by 2035 and carbon neutrality by 2040—by reading the McGill University Climate & Sustainability Strategy 2020-2025.

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21 ELECTRIC CHARGING STATIONS for vehicles have been or are in the process of being installed throughout the Gault, Macdonald and downtown campuses.

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McGill RECYCLED 42 tonnes of e-waste in 2019.

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Since May 2017, student volunteers certified over 315 sustainable events.

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Over 100 McGill student groups and clubs focused on sustainability and/or address the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

* * *

74% of McGill academic departments offer sustainability-related courses.

Sustainability Projects Fund (SPF)
 

Since its creation in 2010, the SPF has allocated about $9.1 million in SEED FUNDING to over 265 sustainability-related projects.

* * *

More than 4,500 volunteers have been mobilized and 7,500 people trained for sustainability projects on McGill’s campuses.

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More than 445 sustainability-related student jobs have been created.

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In the past year, more than 150 partnerships have been established through the SPF.

Year in Review
 

The University committed to a third long-term sustainability target--becoming a zero-waste institution by 2035—in the new McGill University Climate & Sustainability Strategy 2020-2025.

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McGill was designated one of Canada's top 100 Greenest Employers for the third year in a row.

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McGill was recognized by the International Sustainable Campus Network for its previous Climate & Sustainability Action Plan, winning the Honorary Member Award.

ALUMNI AND DONORS

Philanthropy by the numbers

Our Alumni

McGill has over 275,000 alumni living in over 185 countries.

• 51%

         Quebec

• 29%

    Rest of Canada

• 13%

          U.S.A.

• 7%

        Other international

Nearly 185,000 people tuned in to the McGill Alumni webcasts broadcast on McGill’s YouTube channel during the first nine months of the pandemic in 2020.

Pandemic restrictions saw the organization of the first-ever At-Home Homecoming featuring over 70 virtual events and reunions, with over 3,500 participants tuning in from over 50 countries worldwide.

Dozens of alumni around the world participated in special outreach efforts to encourage student acceptances to McGill, to provide moral support to students in their virtual studies and to congratulate the graduating Classes of 2020 during particularly challenging pandemic times.
The McGill Alumni Association aligned with McGill’s Equity, Diversity and Inclusion efforts by making a commitment that at least 25% of its student and branch sponsorship budget will be earmarked for anti-racism initiatives or for initiatives that celebrate the presence and success of diverse communities.

Support for students

• The McGill community came together in a remarkable way to assist students who were financially affected by the COVID-19 crisis, with 2,210 donors contributing $1.2 million to the McGill Student Emergency Support Fund. Support was distributed through the Scholarships and Student Aid Office.
   
• With support from McGill alumni and the Arts Undergraduate Society, the Arts Internship Office was able to provide 119 students with more than $400,000 in funding for skill-building internships. Recipients interned remotely in Canada or in their home countries. In addition, 34 Arts undergraduate students received $153,000 as recipients of the 2020 Arts Undergraduate Research Internship Awards (ARIA).
   
• Over the summer of 2020, 16 students in the Faculty of Law participated remotely in 12-week human rights internships with local and international organizations. In the fall, two recent graduates began in-person judicial clerkships at the International Court of Justice and the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague. These initiatives were largely funded through donor support.
   
• Over $61,000 was raised by 122 donors through McGill’s Seeds of Change crowdfunding platform to aid McGill’s Lebanese students in the aftermath of the Beirut explosion in August 2020.
   
• Donor generosity helped 106 undergraduate Engineering students gain in-depth research experience through Summer Undergraduate Research in Engineering (SURE) awards. All SURE projects took place remotely, and interactions with the research teams were conducted via email and video chat.
   
• The Science Undergraduate Research Award (SURA) program funded summer research experiences for 82 Science students. Most work was done remotely but there were some students in the field and in the labs. Activities included data analysis, modelling, writing algorithms, literature reviews and article writing, all of which will help students in their future endeavours.

2020 highlights

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A landmark $15-million philanthropic investment in the McGill School of Environment from McGill alumnus and agri-food entrepreneur Marc Bieler, DipAgr’58, BA’64, will bolster environmental scholarship, research and outreach.

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McGill’s COVID-19 research efforts also received a boost from 870 donors, who contributed a total of $300,000 to the McGill Emergency COVID-19 Research Fund, helping to support the McGill Interdisciplinary Initiative for Infection and Immunity (MI4) in its wide-ranging work related to the pandemic.

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McGill24, the University’s annual day of giving, raised a record $2.96 million in 2020 from 5,379 gifts over a 24-hour period.

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A $4.8-million legacy gift by the late Mary Marsh, DipEd’42, will support students in the Faculty of Education through a suite of needs-based and merit-based awards.

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A $3-millionstrong> gift from the John Dobson Foundation will allow the McGill Dobson Centre for Entrepreneurship to nurture even more entrepreneurial talent, through inter-faculty partnerships, expansion of existing programs and construction of a new home for the Centre in the Samuel Bronfman Building.

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Thanks to a $2-million gift from the Jarislowsky Foundation, McGill will establish the Stephen Jarislowsky Chair in Technology and Human Nature in the Department of Philosophy to examine pressing philosophical questions arising from the rapid development of AI and other technologies. Building on this initiative, a $1.25 million gift from Kenneth Slater and his family will support Arts fellowships for graduate students pursuing research in the philosophical assessment of technology and its implications for humans and society.

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A $1-million gift from Gisèle and Neil Murdoch created a Local Wellness Advisor position in the Desautels Faculty of Management to provide students with mental health services.