Western part of Maclean's 'top 10'

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By Communications Staff
Thursday, November 5, 2009
The University of Western Ontario showed slight improvement in this year's annual Maclean's University Ranking, moving up a spot to a three-way tie for ninth place (with Ottawa and Saskatchewan) in the medical doctoral category.
 
Schools in this category each have a broad range of PhD programs and research, as well as medical schools.
 
The 19th annual Maclean’s University Rankings includes the results of 53 institutions, including affiliates and second campuses, that took part in the NSSE (National Survey of Student Engagement, 2005-2008)), as well as 31 campuses surveyed for the 2008 CUSC (Canadian University Survey Consortium).
 
Focusing on the undergraduate experience, the rankings assess university performance on 14 indicators across six major areas: students and classes, faculty, resources, student support, library and reputation.
 
Although Western President Amit Chakma feels Western should have taken a higher position in the rankings, he says the results point to issues already on the radar for improvement.
 
“We shouldn’t be feeling bad about this ranking,” he says. “We learn lessons and these lessons are not unknown to us. We work at it ... and we need to tell our story better and bring people together so we are not so fragmented.”
 
Chakma attributes Western’s ninth ranking among medical doctoral schools to lack of funding and a need to boost research intensity.
 
“Although we have made progress in terms of research revenues, others have made more progress,” he says. “We need to improve our research intensity – which we knew all along – and increasing graduate student enrolment is just part of that.
 
“The remaining challenge is to get our resources in order so we can invest more in terms of student services, libraries, operating budget and whatnot. If we can focus on those two areas, and if we are successful, we will gradually move up.”
 
Although Western topped the charts for the Globe and Mail Canadian University Report, Chakma says trying to resolve the results from Maclean’s rankings are like comparing apples and oranges.
 
“The two are looking at different aspects,” he says. “There are certain things in Maclean’s I pay attention to, which would be similar to our Globe ranking and that would be the reputational survey.
 
“I believe what we look at is not necessarily the rankings per se, but the raw data that goes into those rankings and then see whether there are things we can do better.”
 
In a segment that surveys the opinions of educational, community and company leaders, CEOs and recruiters for their views on the national reputation ranking of all schools, Western finished eighth for ‘best overall,’ eighth for highest quality, ninth for most innovative and 16th for leaders of tomorrow. The university ranked high in proportion of students who graduate (79.2 per cent) and retention rate (91.1 per cent).
 
“I do not believe people know many of the good things we do at Western ... It is not just telling the story, it is also reaching out. When you reach out, people get to know you better."
 
Part of the outreach is through community-building partnerships and recruiting international students, he adds.
 
Meanwhile, the university needs to find a way to bring its many areas, such as Robarts Research Institute and the Richard Ivey School of Business, under the umbrella of the Western “brand” to make the relationship more recognizable.
 
“Our problem is we are too fragmented,” he says. “We need to find an opportunity to brand ourselves.”
 
When asked how students would evaluate their entire educational experience, first-year students at Western ranked 8th overall, with 88 per cent answering excellent or good. With senior-year students, the university was 15th overall with an 85 per cent score.
 
Senior-level students at Western’s affiliate colleges ranked their schools among the very best. Huron University College ranked 1st in the country with 92 per cent answering excellent or good. Brescia University College (4th) and King’s University College (8th) each scored 89 per cent.
 
Commenting on the results, Huron Principal Ramona Lumpkin says, “We take enormous pride in the calibre of education we offer to our students at Huron.  As a former Huron University College Board Chair said to me after seeing these results, ‘The survey has shown in graphic form what we’ve all believed for so long.’” 
 
For more on the 2009 university rankings, visit macleans.ca/oncampus and click on ‘Rankings’.

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