Concordia Climbs to 24th in 2014 Maclean’s Rankings

University Jumps Seven Positions in Innovation

NewsAndrew Brennan — Published November 5, 2013 | Updated November 8, 2013 at 4:52pm

The university increased its reputational position nationally from 26th to 24th, and in terms of innovation, jumped from 31st to 24th.

“These results are a further validation that we are investing in all the right areas,” said Concordia President Alan Shepard in a press release. “The academic sector continues to be strengthened and our faculty and students benefit from this.”

Concordia also ranked higher this year in awards per full-time faculty, student scholarships and bursaries as well as library holdings per student.

Unlike it’s reputational rankings—which compile the views of surveyed high school guidance officers, company CEOs, university officials and others in the educational sector—Maclean’s other rankings are data-driven.

Maclean’s assembles their rankings based on the most recent available figures, which in some cases for Concordia is only the finalized data from the 2010-2011 academic year, according to the Concordia press release.

Speaking before Concordia Senate last week, Shepard noted there is more to a university’s perceived success than what is shown in a single ranking.

“We do pay attention to these. We don’t try to steer the place towards the surveys, that’s really teaching to the test, but they are one kind of way to check in with the larger public with how they perceive we’re doing,” he said.

“This reputation building, talking about what’s going on here, does make a difference.”

Concordia has also received other acclamations in the past three months. Its MBA program in the John Molson School of Business was ranked second greenest in the world by Corporate Knights magazine in its annual Global Green survey. The program was also rated second best in Canada and 80th worldwide by The Economist in its annual Which MBA? survey.

Concordia also made its way into the top 500 schools in the world in the QS World University Rankings for the first time ever this year, as well as in the 2013 Academic Ranking of World Universities, compiled by researchers based out of the Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China.

Internationally, Concordia ranked 10th in this year’s Maclean’s rankings in terms of the percentage of first-year students originating from outside Canada.

“Slowly we’re making our presence known,” said Concordia spokesperson Chris Mota. “People are paying attention, our students like what they’re getting and with every one of these good news stories, our momentum builds.”

CLARIFICATION: A previous version of this article was edited appearing to indicate Maclean’s rankings were only data-driven, when its university rankings are based on both survey results or available data, depending on the category. The Link regrets the error.