> SFU again tops Maclean's university rankings

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Contact:
Jon Driver, vice-president, academic, 778.782.3927, driver@sfu.ca
Stuart Colcleugh, PAMR, 778.782.3219

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For the second year in a row, Simon Fraser University has been rated Canada’s best comprehensive university in Maclean’s magazine's annual rankings of the country’s top 48 universities.

The magazine groups 11 universities in its comprehensive category, which includes institutions with a significant amount of research activity and a wide range of programs at the graduate and undergraduate levels.

The other two categories are for medical/doctoral schools and primarily undergraduate institutions.

The magazines notes that “Once again, an outstanding showing in winning student and faculty awards, as well as research grants, contributed to a top-notch score. In addition, SFU scored highly on library spending, particularly in spending on acquisitions.”

“I’m delighted that SFU has again been acknowledged so clearly as one of Canada’s leading universities,” says SFU President Michael Stevenson.

“The current ranking is a great tribute to the strength, energy and imagination of our faculty, staff and students.”

The University of Victoria, which tied SFU for first in 2008, dropped to second this year, while University of Waterloo placed third.

SFU led the comprehensive universities in research grants with an average grant size of $120,100, and a total of 187.5 grants per 1000 faculty members. SFU was #1 in 2008 as well.

In major faculty awards, SFU was #1 among the comprehensives, at the rate of 6.6 awards per 1000 professors.

In library acquisitions, SFU led the way with 52.9 per cent of the library budget devoted to updating the university’s collection, including electronic access. SFU was also first in 2008, but at 50.2 per cent.

In the Maclean’s “National Reputational Rankings” for 2009:

• Best overall: SFU placed 12^th out of 48 Canadian universities, compared with 13^th in 2008.
• Most innovative:  SFU placed 12^th in Canada, up from 13^th in 2008.
• Leaders of Tomorrow: SFU ranked 12^th, up from 14^th in 2008.
• Highest quality: SFU was 15^th, compared with 17^th in 2008.

The 2009 rankings for comprehensive universities (with last year’s Maclean’s rank in parentheses and an asterisk indicating a tie):

1.  Simon Fraser (1*)
2.  Victoria (1*)
3.  Waterloo (3)
4.  Guelph (4)
5.  Memorial (5*)
6.  New Brunswick (5*)
7.  Carleton (7)
8.  Windsor (8)
*9. Regina (9*)
*9. York (9*)
11. Concordia

SFU improved in two of 14 main categories, declined in two and stayed the same in 10, compared to 2008 (in brackets):

• Overall -- 1 (1).
• Student awards -- 2 (2).
• Student/faculty ratio -- 5 (5).
• Awards per full-time faculty -- 1 (1).
• Social sciences and humanities grants -- 2 (1).
• Medical/science grants -- 1 (1).
• Total research dollars -- 5 (5).
• Operating budget -- 2 (1).
• Scholarships and bursaries -- 7 (7).
• Student services -- 3 (3).
• Library expenses -- 2 (6).
• Library acquisitions -- 1 (3).
• Library holdings per student -- 8 (8).
• Reputation among comprehensive schools -- 3 (3).

Maclean’s published complete details of this year’s rankings in its Nov. 5 issue. and online at http://oncampus.macleans.ca/education/rankings/

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