Queen’s placed fifth amongst Canada’s 15 medical-doctoral universities according to the 2019 Maclean’s university rankings, which were released on Thursday.

McGill University and University of Toronto tied atop the medical-doctoral rankings, followed by University of British Columbia, and McMaster University. The ranking features universities with a broad range of PhD programs and research, as well as medical schools. The two other university rankings are comprehensive, and primarily undergraduate.

The highest marks for Queen’s in the medical-doctoral ranking include second place in student satisfaction and faculty awards, while placing fourth in student awards, library expenses, and scholarships and bursaries.

In the student satisfaction ranking Queen’s placed second for a second straight year, behind only Sherbrooke. Queen’s placed in the top three in six of the 10 categories, led by a first place in extracurricular activities. The university also placed second in student life staff and residence living, and third for administrative staff, academic advising staff, and promoting indigenous visibility.

“This year’s Maclean’s rankings speak to the continuing quality of a Queen’s education,” says Principal Daniel Woolf. “Queen’s offers the definitive student experience and I am pleased to note that the university continued its strong showing in the student satisfaction ranking, with positive results in such important categories as student life, mental health services, steps to prevent sexual assault, and promoting Indigenous visibility.” 

Maclean’s also provided statistics that showed Queen’s is tops amongst all universities in the proportion of undergraduate students who graduate (88.6 per cent), third in student retention from first to second year (94.7 per cent), and fifth for average entering grade (89.4 per cent).

Queen’s placed seventh out of 49 universities in the national reputational ranking, up one place from last year. For the reputational ranking Maclean’s surveyed university faculty and senior administrators, high school guidance counsellors and a variety of businesspeople asking for their views on quality and innovation at universities. In the three categories of the ranking, Queen’s placed sixth for highest quality, eighth for most innovative, and seventh for leaders of tomorrow, up three spots from 2018.

Maclean’s also ranked selected programs in the sciences and social sciences, assessing research and reputation: Biology (14); Business (7); Computer Science (12); Education (12); Engineering (9); Medicine (12); Nursing (8); Psychology (6).