On October 13, the Globe and Mail released its second University Report Card, its annual ranking of Canadian universities, and U of T received a middling B+ for its “overall educational experience”; in overall quality of student services it received a B; and in overall career preparation, a B-. The survey research was conducted by the Strategic Counsel, which also compiles polling data on political issues and does a variety of corporate consulting work.
This represented a significant leap from last year’s Globe Report Card, in which the three U of T campuses ranked as the bottom three universities in the country. That ranking was widely denounced at the time for its methodology: data was collected on a voluntary basis through a financial aid website, and was based entirely on students’ perceptions of their universities, which led to some embarassing inaccuracies. For instance, students at York and Waterloo rated their schools’ medical faculties very highly, even though neither university had a med school.
Administration reaction, however, focused again on the methodology used in this year’s survey.
“There have been improvements in presentation but the methodology itself is still based on whoever happens to sign up on the studentawards.com, a financial aid website,” said U of T provost Vivek Goel. “These rankings are not comparable to others, such as the Maclean’s [Guide to Canadian Universities], which draws on a wide array of indicators to develop its rankings, or the US-based National Survey of Student Engagement, which U of T participates in.”
“If you wanted to decide what the best hospital in Ontario was, you would want to know more than the patients’ opinions.”
Maclean’s has consistently placed U of T as the top university in Canada in the Medical/Doctoral category.
The Career Centre declined to comment on the University’s ranking in career preparation, referring questions to the press release published on U of T’s website.
Arij Al Chawaf, vice-president external on the Graduate Student Union (GSU), responded to an article on the Globe website that highlighted dissatisfaction with student government.
“The GSU takes pride in its financial transparency; we publish financial statements in The Varsity on a regular basis,” said Al Chawaf. A student had been quoted in the article describing student unions as focused on petty issues. “The GSU has recently made efforts to collect student feedback and present a report to the Rae Review [on postsecondary education]. On campus, we have made substantial contributions to the University’s Stepping Up [academic] plan.”
Sam Rahimi, Students’ Administrative Council VP External, said, “I am impressed with the methodology used in the survey.
“It makes sense that universities should be ranked on student satisfaction.”
U of T received “A” marks for its library, faculty knowledge of subjects, cultural diversity and openness and the reputation of university among employers.
Conversely, U of T received a grade of “D” on its parking facilities, availability of merit-based financial aid, alternative funding, and affordability of off-campus housing. Other Toronto area universities similarly received poor grades in off campus housing, parking and alternative funding.
