McGill retains title of Canada’s top university in Maclean’s

It’s becoming repetitive: McGill University has been named the country’s “Top Medical Doctoral University” in Maclean’s national university rankings for the 13th year in a row.

Citing its many illustrious alumni — from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Arcade Fire’s Win Butler to singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen — Maclean’s also notes the university has produced more Nobel Laureates (12) and Rhodes Scholars (142) than any other university in Canada.

Universities in that category have significant research operations as well as medical schools. They tend to be among the largest post-secondary institutions in Canada.

Despite having one of the lowest per-student operating budgets of the 49 universities, McGill’s alumni have achieved significant accomplishments, from brain mapping to the invention of Plexiglas, and continue to do so, Maclean’s notes. Among its most recent endeavours are strides in the fields of HIV self-testing, for countries around the world, and artificial intelligence.

“We are delighted to see McGill recognized once again as Canada’s leading university according to the Maclean’s yardstick. All members of our McGill community can take pride in this accomplishment,” principal Suzanne Fortier said. “I salute our alumni for the solid foundation of excellence they have built in our great university and congratulate all the students, professors and staff for their commitment to the values of McGill.”

McGill is also the most internationally diverse medical doctoral university in Canada, with 27 per cent of the student body coming from 140 different countries, Maclean’s noted in its explanation of the ranking.

The magazine also noted that Montreal was recently named the world’s best city for students by global higher-education analysts QS Quacquarelli Symonds.

(The Université de Montréal retained its 11th-place ranking in the “Medical/Doctoral” category.)

That said, McGill ranked ninth in Canada in terms of student satisfaction, behind UBC, Université Laval and Université de Sherbrooke, which ranked first.

The Maclean’s ranking system considers both Concordia and UQAM comprehensive schools, a category for schools that “conduct some graduate-level research and offer a wide range of undergraduate, graduate and professional programs.”

Both universities retained their ranking from the previous school year: Concordia was ranked 10th and UQAM 12th in the comprehensive category.