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The front campus of the University of Toronto, with students walking on green grass
Photo courtesy of the university of toronto, photo by david lee

Best Programs By Reputation

Maclean’s ranks university programs in five popular areas according to their reputations for research and overall quality

Choosing a university is one of the most important decisions students make in their post-secondary careers. Another is deciding what to study. Often, the second choice informs the first, with students selecting a certain university because of a particular program it offers. In our 10th annual program rankings, we evaluate how Canadian universities measure up in the programs they offer in five popular fields in the sciences and social sciences, based on the programs’ reputations for quality and research strength.

Maclean’s contacted faculty and senior administrators at universities across Canada, seeking their views in an online survey. We asked academics if their area of expertise was in any of the following five disciplines: business, computer science, education, engineering or nursing. If so, they were asked to list up to 10 universities that they felt offered the best programs and conducted the best research in their discipline. In the end, more than 1,000 professors, deans and chairs at 70 universities responded.

The following charts show the results for the top 20 universities in each program area, based on the survey results. The program reputation column and the research reputation column show how each university placed on those two questions among all the schools surveyed. Program reputation and research reputation contributed equally to the final results; both were weighted at 50 per cent.

BUSINESS

UniversityRankProgram ReputationResearch Reputation
Toronto Metropolitan202019
Dalhousie202018
Saint Mary's191822
Victoria172217
Ottawa171719
UQAM161616
McMaster151415
Sherbrooke141314
Laval131511
Simon Fraser121112
Concordia11913
Waterloo10128
Calgary999
York8810
Montréal777
Alberta664
Queen's556
Western435
McGill343
Toronto111
UBC111

* Indicates a tie

COMPUTER SCIENCE

UniversityRankProgram ReputationResearch Reputation
Western191819
Toronto Metropolitan191919
Laval182017
Saskatchewan171718
York161616
Carleton151415
Ottawa141314
McMaster131410
Dalhousie121013
Concordia111112
Victoria101211
Queen's888
Calgary879
Montréal796
Simon Fraser667
McGill555
Alberta444
UBC333
Waterloo111
Toronto111

* Indicates a tie

EDUCATION

UniversityRankProgram ReputationResearch Reputation
UQAM202217
Lethbridge181522
Laval181818
Lakehead161716
Concordia162113
St. Francis Xavier151419
Montréal141610
Saskatchewan131214
Victoria121212
Brock111111
Simon Fraser101014
Ottawa999
Western887
York775
Calgary638
Queen's556
McGill344
Alberta363
Toronto111
UBC111

* Indicates a tie

ENGINEERING

UniversityRankProgram ReputationResearch Reputation
Toronto Metropolitan201822
Ottawa201922
Manitoba192118
York182414
Windsor171717
Memorial161616
Sherbrooke151221
Victoria141314
Western131413
Concordia121412
Laval111011
Carleton10119
Montréal9910
Queen's888
Calgary777
McMaster656
Alberta565
McGill443
Waterloo214
UBC232
Toronto111

* Indicates a tie

NURSING

UniversityRankProgram ReputationResearch Reputation
Windsor181816
York171717
Toronto Metropolitan161514
Victoria151218
Laval141413
Saskatchewan131611
Memorial121115
Manitoba111312
Ottawa1089
Western988
Calgary8107
Queen's779
McMaster646
Dalhousie564
McGill455
Toronto231
UBC223
Alberta111

* Indicates a tie

Only 18 universities are ranked in Nursing as a minimum number of responses are required for both best programs and best research.