Maclean's 18th Annual University Rankings

[jdobbin]

I wasn't sure where to put this but since education is a provincial responsibility, I placed it here.

http://oncampus.macleans.ca/education/2008...nnual-rankings/

Last place in the study again for medical school universities was the University of Manitoba.

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingn...p-4891292c.html

THE University of Manitoba remains in last place again this year in the annual Maclean’s magazine university rankings — 15th out of 15 large universities with medical schools.

The University of Winnipeg maintained last year’s ninth-place spot among 21 smaller universities with primarily undergraduate programs.

But the big surprise was Brandon University, which vaulted from 18th place among smaller schools to an 11th-place tie with Lakehead University.

Some say the biggest reason universities in Manitoba don't rank higher is the tuition cap is causing underfunding.

[madmax]

I wasn't sure where to put this but since education is a provincial responsibility, I placed it here.

http://oncampus.macleans.ca/education/2008...nnual-rankings/

Last place in the study again for medical school universities was the University of Manitoba.

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingn...p-4891292c.html

Some say the biggest reason universities in Manitoba don't rank higher is the tuition cap is causing underfunding.

Universitys shouldn't participate in these trivial judgements of Macleans. I used to be intrigued by them, then I went to University and realized Macleans is full of it.

[Smallc]

Universitys shouldn't participate in these trivial judgements of Macleans. I used to be intrigued by them, then I went to University and realized Macleans is full of it.

amen.

[jdobbin]

Universitys shouldn't participate in these trivial judgements of Macleans. I used to be intrigued by them, then I went to University and realized Macleans is full of it.

The problem is that the universities say there is no way to measure a university which I disagree with.

[Kitchener]

The problem is that the universities say there is no way to measure a university which I disagree with.

I can't find a record of a university saying that there is no way to measure a university. Could you provide a citation?

In my experience, at least, university administrators (and statistically informed people in general) are much likelier to say something along the lines of: there are many, many, many ways to measure universities; not all of these are sensible or valid; even ones that are sensible are probably not commensurable; and hence that boiling them down to a single ordinal ranking is an exercise in pseudo-precise misrepresentation.

For example:

"They essentially bundle up a whole bunch of different measures and try to deduce a single ranking out of that,"said [university of Calgary] provost and vice-president academic Dr. Alan Harrison... Harrison said the rankings ignore the specific strengths and weaknesses of different institutions.

This point, by contrast with the one you assert universities make, is actually plausible. It significantly undermines the entire point of any simplistic "league standings" ranking of complex institutions having a diverse range of aims.