Maclean’s 2014 University Rankings were published Oct. 31 and, for the first time in six years, SFU is not the number one comprehensive university, beaten out by the University of Victoria (UVic) for the top spot.
SFU has been ranked the top comprehensive university in Canada a total of ten times since Maclean’s started publishing rankings 21 years ago, and was on a five-year streak in the top spot from 2008 to 2012.
Each year, Maclean’s publishes three sets of university rankings under three separate categories: medical doctoral, comprehensive, and primarily undergraduate. Universities in the comprehensive category show a significant amount of research activity and have a wide range of programs at the undergraduate and graduate level.
All three rankings are based on six main categories: students and classes, faculty, resources, student support, library, and reputation. Mount Allison University topped the primarily undergraduate category, and McGill University came in first among institutions under the medical doctoral category.
The Peak spoke to SFU VP Academic, Dr. Jon Driver, about the new rankings and how SFU administration reacts to rankings such as Maclean’s.
“Rankings are interesting, because they are fairly crude attempts to measure very complex institutions,” said Driver. “On the one hand we recognized that what goes on at SFU, both in terms of teaching and in terms of research, is a very complicated story and it really can’t capture them so easily in rankings.”
Driver pointed to a significant drop in SFU’s ranking under scholarships and bursaries as especially concerning.
He continued, “On the other hand, we always pay attention to rankings, because they do influence public opinion about the university, [and] they influence student choices about whether or not to come to a particular university.”
Driver described university rankings as a tool for university administration to focus in on areas of possible concern, and address potential problems. In comparison with last year’s rankings, SFU went up in three of the judged categories and down in three, while UVic had scores go up in two categories and down in four. “That’s a bit of a conundrum for us,” laughed Driver.
Driver explained that SFU administration will be looking into the math and the data supporting the rankings, and checking that all information that was submitted to Maclean’s was accurate. He pointed specifically to a significant drop in SFU’s ranking under scholarships and bursaries as especially concerning.
Last year SFU was ranked sixth among the 15 comprehensive universities for contributions to student scholarships and bursaries. This year, that ranking has slipped to 12th.
“This appears at first look to be a really strange change, a really significant change. That’s the area that causes me the biggest concern, and I am fairly sure that that change in our ranking is probably what’s driving the move from being first to second position,” said Driver.
He continued, “If this really is a significant change for SFU and it’s not caused by the methodology or something like that, and presuming that the data are correct, we will have to take a hard look at how much we are contributing to scholarships and bursaries.”
When it comes to UVic taking the top spot, Driver had nothing but encouraging things to say. “I think it’s wonderful that the two comprehensive universities from British Columbia are sitting at one and two,” he said. “I think it says a great deal about the quality of both of those universities, the quality of the faculty members, the quality of the students, and the attention that both universities pay to trying to create the best educational experience we can.”
In 2012, President Andrew Petter cautiously celebrated the university’s success in international rankings writing: “I’m reluctant to attach too much significance to university rankings given their selective criteria and varied methodologies. But it’s hard not to take some small satisfaction from the recent reports of two leading international ratings,” alluding to the Times Higher Education (THE) and QS rankings.
Last year, in the THE 100 Under 50, SFU placed 26th in the world, and third in Canada. In the QS Top 50 Under 50, SFU was ranking 30th in the world, and second in Canada.
