Concordia maintains top 10 spot among Maclean's rankings of comprehensive universities
For the ninth time in the last 10 years, Maclean’s magazine has placed Concordia among Canada’s top 10 comprehensive universities. Concordia also improved from last year in four of the indicators measured by the magazine in its newly released 2025 university rankings.
Maclean’s defines comprehensive universities as having “a significant amount of research activity and a wide range of undergraduate, graduate and professional programs.” It ranks 50 universities across the country, including 15 comprehensive universities as well as 15 medical doctoral universities and 20 primarily undergraduate universities.
Concordia ranked sixth, its highest placement, in four indicators: Total Research Dollars, up three spots from 2023; Library Expenses; SSHRC Grants; and Reputation Survey. In its national reputation survey, Maclean’s placed Concordia in the top 20 for “most innovative,” “best overall” and “highest quality,” and 22nd for “leaders of tomorrow.”
Most notable among Concordia’s four improved indicators are:
- Faculty Awards — Concordia climbed four spots to 11th, as the university’s number of full-time professors per 1,000 who won national awards over a five-year period (2019–2023) increased from 0.4 to 1.1.
- Total Research Dollars — With a 50 per cent growth in research dollars per full-time faculty, Concordia improved three spots to sixth place; the indicator considers the total income from sponsored research divided by the number of full-time faculty ($89,146 last year; $134,059 this year).
Concordia’s other improved indicators were Operating Budget, up one spot to 13th — Concordia increased expenditures per full-time equivalent student; and Student Services, up one spot to 14th — with the percentage of the university’s total operating expenditures devoted to student services increasing slightly, from 3.1 to 3.2 per cent.
See how the university and its programs rank among Canadian and international institutions.
