Announcement re: Macleans magazine

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On August 14, 2006, Simon Fraser University joined 10 other major Canadian universities in declining the invitation of Macleans magazine to assist in this year's University Rankings exercise.

As a public institution, SFU devotes major resources every year to accountability and transparency, and will continue to do so. But as a research university, we are equally committed to the responsible use of data. We and our peer universities object to Macleans' misuse of data in establishing a spurious "ranking" table that is, at best, useless and, at worst, misleading to students wishing to make a thorough choice about the university they wish to attend.

Here is the letter that we and the 10 other universities sent to Macleans explaining these objections in detail.

(By early September, 11 other universities had joined the 11, and Macleans announced a plan "to begin consultations on further improving Macleans’ universities coverage for 2007 and beyond." The Universities who have pulled out of the Macleans ranking system are: Alberta, BC, Brandon, Brock, Calgary, Carleton, Concordia, Dalhousie, Laurentian, Lethbridge, Manitoba, McMaster, Montreal, New Brunswick, Ottawa, Queen's, SFU, Toronto, and York.Alberta, BC, Brandon, Brock, Calgary, Carleton, Concordia, Dalhousie, Laurentian, Lethbridge, Manitoba, McMaster,  Montreal,  New Brunswick, Ottawa, Queen's, SFU, Toronto, Trent, Western Ontario, Windsor and York.)