Among the best
The Globe and Mail has released its annual Canadian University Report, and according to the survey, Concordia’s students rate it among the top universities in the country.
“What strikes me is how comparable we are to universities that most people think are better than we are,” says Bradley Tucker, director of the Institutional Planning Office, of the report. “The student evaluation of their experience is very similar.”
The survey upon which the Canadian University Report is based reflects the opinions of more than 35,000 current undergraduate students. The results are derived from answers to approximately 100 questions. Strict controls were built into the process to help insure that the students included in the sample are representative of Canadian undergraduates.
Tucker says the survey is particularly noteworthy as it relies on each school’s own student body for the evaluations. “You can see how our students are rating our school compared to how other students at other universities are rating their school,” Tucker says.
He also praises the report’s online navigation tool, available through the Globe Campus website, which allows users to compare different schools based on up to five different criteria they select from a list. “It allows prospective students to create their own ranking of schools based on what matters to them, rather than on what matters to someone else,” he says.
According to the report’s findings, satisfaction with class sizes at Concordia stands at the top of large Canadian universities. As for research opportunities, Concordia trails only McMaster, Waterloo and Western among all the large universities, and is as highly ranked as any comparable comprehensive universities, such as Carleton, York, the University of Victoria, or Simon Fraser University. The quality of its information technology places Concordia behind only McGill. As for its personality test, Concordia ranks in first place in the country when its students were asked to evaluate the diversity of its student body.
One other area worth noting is the performance of Concordia’s libraries. Recent changes, including keeping the libraries open for study for 24 hours during certain peak times of the semester, have proven popular among students, prompting those surveyed to give the university’s libraries a mark of A-.
The Canadian University Report also includes other third-party information not culled from the student survey, such as the cost of tuition (Quebec universities, including Concordia, are the most affordable in the country) and the maximum and minimum cost students should expect to pay for housing both on and off campus. It also includes the number of research publications the school is responsible for producing during the year, and the amount of international collaborations.
Tucker encourages both prospective and Concordia students to check out the report, and see for themselves how the university fares. “I want more people to be a aware of it,” he says. “The evaluation here puts us in line with universities that are generally considered to have better reputations.”
Related links:
• The Globe and Mail’s annual Canadian University Report
• Globe Campus Navigator