The Cadre

Maclean's university survey comes under fire - again

BY ANDREW SUNSTRUM

TORONTO (CUP) - Amid a magazine buying frenzy the likes of which Canadians see only once a year, the Maclean's annual university rankings hits news stands this week.

At the top of the three cat- egories into which Maclean's separates Canada’s universi- ties torank them were familiar names. All top-ranked schools came first in their respective categories last year as well.

Topping the medical/doc- toral category, which contains schools with a broad range of doctoral programs and re- search and a medical school, was the University of Toronto, marking the fourth year in a row U of T has copped top honours in this category.

Simon Fraser University in B.C. took first in the compre- hensive category, which ranks schools with substantial pro- grams at both the graduate and undergraduate level, and have significant research. Repeating in the primarily un- dergraduate category was Mount Allison University in New Brunswick.

But despite the 20 criteria used in determining the win- ners and the losers, some stil! feel that the ranking system remains flawed.

Kerry-lee Clarke, director of enrollment management and institutional advancement at Lakehead University, says the specialized nature of some universities are not reflected in the final findings.

“It’s truly unfortunate that the problems in Maclean’s will continue to encourage them to highlight schools that they don’t adequately capture the essence of,” she said. Lakehead finished fifteenth in the primarily undergraduate category.

Alison Ogilvie, a second

year theatre major at Concordia University "which has come dead last in the com- prehensive category the last two years" agrees.

“Maclean's doesn’t reflect Concordia adequately. My pro- gram is really well rounded and I don’t think I would have found that anywhere else,” she said, adding that Concordia has excellent fine arts and com- munications programs.

Similar complaints are be- ing heard on the campus of York University. The school ranked fifth in the comprehen- sive category.

“What I like about York isn’ t found in Maclean's,” Joel Harden, president of York's graduate student union, said. “Y ork chose not to raise gradu- ate tuition last year, when every other university in Ontario did, which shows a certain amount of commitment to graduate stu- dents. But youdon’t see that in Maclean's.”

But Victor Dwyer, educa- tion editor for Maclean's magazine, says people shouldn't read too much into the rankings.

“It looks broadly at univer- sity campuses. We don’t do anything more and don’t pre- tend to,” he said, adding the magazine is very open a how its research is conducted. “We show exactly how we did it, we measured, how much we weighted them and you can read it anyway you want.”

U of T’s continued survey supremacy has led to celebra- tory congratulations on cam-

pus.

“I am absolutely ae to see the University of To- ronto recognized as Canada’s pre-eminent research univer- sity,” U of T ident Robert Prichard said, adding that the rankings are a useful tool.

“T believe it is good. The

issue of Maclean’s, including the rankings, greatly increase the profile of higher education in Canada and is very good for all universities,” he said.

But other institutions aren’t as convinced as to the positive effects of the survey.

Bruce Hubley, director of institutional advancementat the University College of Cape Breton, says UCCB has been discriminated against in the survey for not having the ac- cess to the alumni and corpo- rate dollars that Ivy League schools like U of T does.

“We are a young institution without large endowments so the survey's not weighted in our favour,” he said. UCCB placed twenty-first in the pri- marily undergraduate category this year,

This year 42 English-lan- guage and nine French-lan- guage schools participated in the survey, the magazine's seventh. This year, eight French-language schools eaded aboyoot ofthe raskings over what they said was inac- curate information in the sur- ibe A a mislead readers.

comprehensiveness of the survey is what makes it popular, says Dwyer.

“Given that we're the only

Se ee it’s quite popular among the blic.” he said. ut because of this larity, schools may be re to participate in a in which they don’t agree with, Ross McMillan, a member of the York student union, says. “We can’t not cooperate without looking very bad and when we do we're

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