这是今天的Ottawa Citizen上的评论文章：
Carleton, U of O slide in Maclean's rankings
Jennifer Morrison and Sarah Schmidt
The Ottawa Citizen
Monday, November 10, 2003
It's the day prospective students, parents and university administrators across the country have been waiting for. Maclean's magazine has released its much-anticipated annual university rankings survey -- and the news isn't good for either of Ottawa's universities.
The University of Ottawa and Carleton University have lost significant ground in their respective categories from last year, finding themselves lumped near the bottom of the class.
Carleton, the school that has dubbed itself 'Canada's capital university' is ranked 10th of 11 schools in the comprehensive category, down one place from last year. The only school with a worse ranking is the University of Windsor, which maintained its last-place ranking for a second consecutive year.
Across town, the University of Ottawa fared even worse, dropping three places from last year, ranked 12th of 15 schools in the highly competitive medical-doctoral category in which the University of Toronto finished first once again.
"The drop is considerable. Always to go more than one (spot) is huge," explained Maclean's editor-at-large Ann Dowsett Johnston. "It's kind of holding its own, but others are pulling ahead." The U of O hasn't received a lower ranking since 1999 when it was also positioned 12th, she said, adding that it generally hovers between ninth and 11th place.
This year's ranking comes as a big blow to the school, which for the past six months has been trying to boost its public image and brand itself "Canada's university" in an effort to attract the best students and more donors. As part of the campaign, administrators are hoping to attract more out-of-province students who want to study in French and English, and take advantage of the school's proximity to federal agencies.
"We're not pleased with this," said David Mitchell, vice-president of university relations at the U of O. "We're disappointed that we slipped this year and we're looking forward to going through the data in some detail."
The detailed data released today will allow Mr. Mitchell to understand and dissect where the school has dropped and areas where it has improved. The ranking is based on 24 performance measures, including average entering grade, library resources, class size, reputation, and percentage of first-year students who will return the following year.
"We actually feel we're making great process in the last little while in a number of areas. We think our reputation is starting to move up, but it takes some time for that to filter through," he said.
Ms. Dowsett Johnson confirmed the U of O has lost points in a couple of categories which contribute to the overall ranking, and these coupled together allowed other schools to pull ahead.
"Really in many ways you've got to blame what happened on Laval and Saskatchewan doing better, and McMaster falling, but not as much as they (Ottawa) did," she said, explaining the ranking.
On a positive note, Ms. Dowsett Johnston applauded the U of O's rebranding efforts and says "they're on the right track."
Whereas the U of O is ranked in the medical-doctoral category and competes against leading schools such as the University of Toronto, Queen's University and the University of Western Ontario, which all have medical schools and a broad range of PhD programs, Carleton is ranked in the comprehensive category. This list includes schools with a range of undergraduate and graduate-level programs, professional degrees and significant research activity. Guelph finished first for a second straight year, followed by the University of Waterloo and the University of Victoria.
Ms. Dowsett Johnston did say Carleton improved in some areas, specifically in the leaders of tomorrow reputation survey, where the school jumped five spots from last year, and is now ranked 25th of 47 schools.
But on a whole, other schools did better, while Carleton stayed the same, she said.
Maclean's uses a percentile methodology to rank the institutions in its three categories, now based on 24 measurement indicators about students, class sizes, faculty, finances, libraries, and reputation. Each indicator carries with it a certain weight, with average entering grades and the university's reputation survey carrying the most.
There is an ongoing conversation with the universities about the numbers behind the rankings, usually in private and often fruitful, ever since Ms. Dowsett Johnston took over the ambitious project in 1992.
This year, Maclean's has added an indicator (student retention rates), and shifted weight away from alumni support (the number of donations by its graduates). Ms. Dowsett Johnston says she's been convinced that a strong showing in alumni support is no longer the best way to measure student satisfaction.
"It will make some people very happy, and some people unhappy," she concedes.
After 17 months of negotiations with the Quebec universities, Maclean's has also devised a new conversion system for Quebec's distinct grading system (known as the R-score) in the province's pre-university colleges. Laval University and Concordia University both receive a bump in this year's ranking as a result of the change, largely because Maclean's puts so much weight on average entering grades.
Not surprisingly, this is the real battleground: what to measure, how Maclean's defines each category, and how each university interprets each definition and calculates the results.
Sound straightforward? Hardly.
"Every indicator has a whole history behind it," says Chuck Adler, director of the planning office at McGill University. "I know as a reader, you look at these things and you think it's all black and white, but it's not black and white. It seems to be straightforward, but the final results can be quite misleading."
The Maclean's magazine rankings come almost one month after the release of the Globe and Mail's university report card, which was based on an online survey of more than 20,000 students from 58 universities.
Just like the Maclean's rankings, the Globe report didn't paint a very pretty picture of campus life at either Ottawa school. In quality of education, Carleton was ranked 24th, and the U of O was 30th. And when it came to reputation, the U of O finished 29th, followed by Carleton in 33rd.
- - -
Medical-doctoral universities
Rank Last year
1 Toronto 1
2 McGill 3
3 Queen's 2
4 Western 3
5 UBC 5
6 Alberta 7
7 Montreal 6
8 Sherbrooke 8
9 Saskatchewan 12
10 Laval 13
11 McMaster 10
12 Ottawa 9
13 Dalhousie 11
14 Calgary 14
15 Manitoba 15
- - -
Comprehensive universities ranking
Rank Last year
1 Guelph 1
2 Waterloo 2
3 Victoria 4
4 Simon Fraser 3
5 Memorial 5
6 Regina 6
7 Concordia 10
8 New Brunswick 8
8 York 6
10 Carleton 9
11 Windsor 11
Carleton, U of O slide in Maclean's rankings
Jennifer Morrison and Sarah Schmidt
The Ottawa Citizen
Monday, November 10, 2003
It's the day prospective students, parents and university administrators across the country have been waiting for. Maclean's magazine has released its much-anticipated annual university rankings survey -- and the news isn't good for either of Ottawa's universities.
The University of Ottawa and Carleton University have lost significant ground in their respective categories from last year, finding themselves lumped near the bottom of the class.
Carleton, the school that has dubbed itself 'Canada's capital university' is ranked 10th of 11 schools in the comprehensive category, down one place from last year. The only school with a worse ranking is the University of Windsor, which maintained its last-place ranking for a second consecutive year.
Across town, the University of Ottawa fared even worse, dropping three places from last year, ranked 12th of 15 schools in the highly competitive medical-doctoral category in which the University of Toronto finished first once again.
"The drop is considerable. Always to go more than one (spot) is huge," explained Maclean's editor-at-large Ann Dowsett Johnston. "It's kind of holding its own, but others are pulling ahead." The U of O hasn't received a lower ranking since 1999 when it was also positioned 12th, she said, adding that it generally hovers between ninth and 11th place.
This year's ranking comes as a big blow to the school, which for the past six months has been trying to boost its public image and brand itself "Canada's university" in an effort to attract the best students and more donors. As part of the campaign, administrators are hoping to attract more out-of-province students who want to study in French and English, and take advantage of the school's proximity to federal agencies.
"We're not pleased with this," said David Mitchell, vice-president of university relations at the U of O. "We're disappointed that we slipped this year and we're looking forward to going through the data in some detail."
The detailed data released today will allow Mr. Mitchell to understand and dissect where the school has dropped and areas where it has improved. The ranking is based on 24 performance measures, including average entering grade, library resources, class size, reputation, and percentage of first-year students who will return the following year.
"We actually feel we're making great process in the last little while in a number of areas. We think our reputation is starting to move up, but it takes some time for that to filter through," he said.
Ms. Dowsett Johnson confirmed the U of O has lost points in a couple of categories which contribute to the overall ranking, and these coupled together allowed other schools to pull ahead.
"Really in many ways you've got to blame what happened on Laval and Saskatchewan doing better, and McMaster falling, but not as much as they (Ottawa) did," she said, explaining the ranking.
On a positive note, Ms. Dowsett Johnston applauded the U of O's rebranding efforts and says "they're on the right track."
Whereas the U of O is ranked in the medical-doctoral category and competes against leading schools such as the University of Toronto, Queen's University and the University of Western Ontario, which all have medical schools and a broad range of PhD programs, Carleton is ranked in the comprehensive category. This list includes schools with a range of undergraduate and graduate-level programs, professional degrees and significant research activity. Guelph finished first for a second straight year, followed by the University of Waterloo and the University of Victoria.
Ms. Dowsett Johnston did say Carleton improved in some areas, specifically in the leaders of tomorrow reputation survey, where the school jumped five spots from last year, and is now ranked 25th of 47 schools.
But on a whole, other schools did better, while Carleton stayed the same, she said.
Maclean's uses a percentile methodology to rank the institutions in its three categories, now based on 24 measurement indicators about students, class sizes, faculty, finances, libraries, and reputation. Each indicator carries with it a certain weight, with average entering grades and the university's reputation survey carrying the most.
There is an ongoing conversation with the universities about the numbers behind the rankings, usually in private and often fruitful, ever since Ms. Dowsett Johnston took over the ambitious project in 1992.
This year, Maclean's has added an indicator (student retention rates), and shifted weight away from alumni support (the number of donations by its graduates). Ms. Dowsett Johnston says she's been convinced that a strong showing in alumni support is no longer the best way to measure student satisfaction.
"It will make some people very happy, and some people unhappy," she concedes.
After 17 months of negotiations with the Quebec universities, Maclean's has also devised a new conversion system for Quebec's distinct grading system (known as the R-score) in the province's pre-university colleges. Laval University and Concordia University both receive a bump in this year's ranking as a result of the change, largely because Maclean's puts so much weight on average entering grades.
Not surprisingly, this is the real battleground: what to measure, how Maclean's defines each category, and how each university interprets each definition and calculates the results.
Sound straightforward? Hardly.
"Every indicator has a whole history behind it," says Chuck Adler, director of the planning office at McGill University. "I know as a reader, you look at these things and you think it's all black and white, but it's not black and white. It seems to be straightforward, but the final results can be quite misleading."
The Maclean's magazine rankings come almost one month after the release of the Globe and Mail's university report card, which was based on an online survey of more than 20,000 students from 58 universities.
Just like the Maclean's rankings, the Globe report didn't paint a very pretty picture of campus life at either Ottawa school. In quality of education, Carleton was ranked 24th, and the U of O was 30th. And when it came to reputation, the U of O finished 29th, followed by Carleton in 33rd.
- - -
Medical-doctoral universities
Rank Last year
1 Toronto 1
2 McGill 3
3 Queen's 2
4 Western 3
5 UBC 5
6 Alberta 7
7 Montreal 6
8 Sherbrooke 8
9 Saskatchewan 12
10 Laval 13
11 McMaster 10
12 Ottawa 9
13 Dalhousie 11
14 Calgary 14
15 Manitoba 15
- - -
Comprehensive universities ranking
Rank Last year
1 Guelph 1
2 Waterloo 2
3 Victoria 4
4 Simon Fraser 3
5 Memorial 5
6 Regina 6
7 Concordia 10
8 New Brunswick 8
8 York 6
10 Carleton 9
11 Windsor 11
