Queen’s University has placed seventh out of 15 universities, climbing two spots, in the medical-doctoral category for the 2025 rankings of Canadian universities by Maclean’s magazine. 

The medical-doctoral category features universities with a broad range of PhD programs and research, as well as medical schools. The two other broad categories in the rankings are Comprehensive, and Primarily Undergraduate.

Institutions are ranked in five areas based on 12 performance indicators.

Queen’s best results were in the measurements of Student Awards (5), Faculty Awards (5), Scholarships and Bursaries (5), as well as Medical/Science Grants (6), and Library Expenses (6). 

In the Bonus Data, Queen’s once again placed first nationally in the proportion of undergraduate students who graduate (89.1 per cent), third in student retention from first year to second year (94.2 per cent), and third for average entering grade (91.4 per cent).

In terms of average class size, Queen’s had the 10th biggest for first- and second-year courses at 80.7, while the ninth smallest for third- and fourth-year course at 19.0.

McGill University, University of Toronto, and University of British Columbia claimed the top three positions in the medical-doctoral category.

National Reputational Survey

As part of the rankings Maclean’s also took a closer look at the national reputation of each university, surveying faculty and senior administrators, and a variety of businesspeople for their views on the measurements of Highest Quality, Most Innovative, and Leaders of Tomorrow. Queen’s placed sixth out of 50 universities in the survey.

Program rankings

Maclean’s also looked at five programs in the sciences and social sciences, assessing program reputation and research reputation. Only the top 20 were highlighted for each program, with Queen’s being ranked in each category, and making the top eight in all five program rankings. Queen’s program rankings were: Business (5); Computer Science (8); Education (5); Engineering (8); Nursing (7).

The full rankings are available at macleans.ca.