UPEI: Significantly Better than Average

Or so claims Controversial Macleans Undergrad Ranking Issue

by Kate McKENNA

Two Thousand and Eight saw a slight jump for UPEI in the Macleans Magazine 18th Annual University Rankings. UPEI tied with Lethbridge University as the seventh best primarily undergraduate school in Canada. Mount Allison rose to the top, ousting Acadia, with whom Mount A shared the prime spot, for the number one seat. The issue hit newstands in November. Since 2000, UPEI has steadily risen in the rankings, peaking at 5th in 2005.

Consensus among students is that the climb has been deserved. Most students point toward the friendly and engaging faculty as reason for the steady climb. First year business student Matt MacKay is pleased with UPEI’s result, saying, “I don’t know why people say it’s a bad school”. Discussing the criteria for which UPEI did well, he elaborated: “. . . I would not be comfortable being in a class room with 200 plus people and being known by number and not by name. I know I need to let go of high school, but having the one-on-one relationship with my teachers is what helped me get the marks I needed to get into university, and it will help me get through university.”

Second year arts student Fierah Livingstone agrees wholeheartedly with MacKay. “I've been at UPEI for three semesters and I'm still surprised at how caring my profs are,” she said, “...out of the 13 different professors I've had, there are only two or three who didn't call me by name and make conversation with me. And many of them went far above and beyond basic responsibilities to make sure I was understanding the material [and] getting assignments in.”

UPEI Alum Eagan Boire was quick to agree. “I've gone to UPEI three times by now, so it must be doing something right - both in the Engineering and Business faculties. What kept me coming back was definitely the small class size mixed with the quality of teaching staff. I couldn't care less if the basketball team was losing, I was going to school for education not entertainment.”

Of course, not all institutions look favourably on the Macleans rating system. The judging - including a merit based on student/faculty ratio, feeling of inclusiveness, engagement, and general student satisfaction - inherently favour smaller universities. Lo, a great number of Canadian Universities have opted not to participate directly in the survey, including institutions such as McGill and University of Ottawa, Dalhousie, Queen’s, and Carleton. Since those universities, and a great few more, do not give information directly to Macleans, some concern has been raised over the quality of the information used in the survey.

UPEI was less receptive of the survey in 2000, when it placed 18th. Then, said president Wade MacLauchlan, “The general sentiment in my discussions with colleagues is that this does not reflect either the absolute or the relative quality of UPEI.” Oh, how times have changed.