McGill ranked first for fifth year in a row among Canada's medical-doctoral universities

University remains committed to achieving highest standards, Principal says

For the fifth straight year, McGill University has been named Canada's top university in its class in the annual rankings produced by Maclean's Magazine. McGill placed first in the medical-doctoral category, which includes 15 Canadian universities with medical schools and a broad range of PhD programs.

"We are, of course, very gratified that McGill continues to earn such valuable recognition for its outstanding research, scholarship and teaching," said Principal and Vice-Chancellor Heather Munroe-Blum. "Canada has a great resource in all its universities, which continue to excel at their various missions among the world's universities. That McGill is itself placed highly among them - especially considering the disparity in resources that exists between us and many of our peers - is a tribute to our exceptional faculty, students and staff who all contribute in significant ways to establishing a consistent standard of excellence."

In fact, McGill manages to achieve its high standing and leading reputational scores despite being ranked ninth in the country in operating expenditures per weighted full-time equivalent student.

"In spite of our continuing funding challenges," Prof. Munroe-Blum said, "McGill remains committed to achieving the highest levels in teaching, research and scholarship in order to make the greatest possible contribution to our society, at home here in Montreal and Quebec as well as in the wider world."

The Maclean's rankings and surveys measure a number of aspects of a university's operation. McGill was a leader in a number of areas, including:

• First place in the survey of high-school principals and guidance counselors, university officials and corporate recruiters that measures universities by quality. Other reputational scores were no lower than second.
• McGill students had the highest average entrance grades (89.7 per cent)
• Highest proportion of students who graduate (83.9 per cent).
• First in student awards for the 11th consecutive year.
• Top performer in average size and number of social sciences/humanities grants per full-time faculty.

While every approach to universities rankings emphasizes different elements of a university's operation, and each has its strengths and weaknesses, our consistent, strong showing in Maclean's and the Times Higher Education-QS rankings in particular underlines that McGill is truly one of the finest universities in the world.

Last month, for example, McGill was for the sixth year in a row named one of the world's Top 25 universities by the prestigious THE-QS World University Rankings. McGill's 18th place in the 2009 THE-QS rankings was again the highest of any Canadian university.

For more information on the Maclean's rankings, visit http://oncampus.macleans.ca/education/2009/11/05/our-19th-annual-rankings/