An annual Globe and Mail survey has given McMaster University the highest grades in the country in some areas and deemed it worst in the nation for others.
The 2013 Canadian University Report was released by The Globe and Mail on Oct. 23, including the annual student satisfaction survey results.
McMaster University performed well in most areas and achieved an overall satisfaction grade of A, only being eclipsed by Western University—a consistent theme throughout most of the report.
Schools are graded and ranked in separate buy viagra made by pflizer groups according to size. This ensures that, for instance, McMaster, with a student body approaching 30,000, is not directly measured against Redeemer University College and its population of about 900 students.
In the large university category, McMaster tied for the highest grade in categories like research opportunity, campus atmosphere and academic counselling. The University was also near the top of the list for reputation with employers and quality of teaching and learning.
Mac was joined near the top of most grading categories by The University of Western Ontario, McGill, University of Alberta and University of Waterloo.
The report also shed light on some obvious areas of student dissatisfaction.
McMaster was graded worse than any university, of every size grouping, when it came to course registration. The locally well-known fact of SOLAR’s need for change is now nationally recognised.
The school is also tied for last, among large institutions, with York University in terms of city satisfaction, while other schools in Toronto and universities in Montreal and Ottawa received favourable grades and comprised of the top six on the list.
York fared the worst among large universities, acheiving an overall satisfaction grade of C+.
Medium sized University of Guelph and Queen’s University were given the highest grades in their catagory, while University of Windsor sits at the bottom of the preverbial barrel.
Grant MacEwan University and University of New Brunswick- Frederiction faired best and worst for small sized universities.
Schools termed “very small” did well for the most part. Every university in that catagory, with the exception of Brandon University, acheived a grade of B+ or highter.
The Globe’s report is different from traditional university rankings in that it is not just a ranking system. The Report gives grades to schools, and takes into account opinions for surveyed students.
Unlike the QS World University Rankings, Times Higher Education Rankings and the Shanghai Rankings, the Globe and Mail Student Satisfaction Survey is more focussed on things like university environment and how students feel their university is doing, in addition to quantitative data on research opportunities and the like.
Where the other ranking systems measure things like Nobel Prize winners, endowment account balances and income of graduates, the Satisfaction Survey attempts to grade things that are more difficult to measure.
Infographic credit: Ben Barrett-Forrest / Multimedia Editor