THE
RESOURCE
FOR
ACADEMIC
DEVELOPMENT
&
SCHOOLING
High School
PICKING THE RIGHT UNIVERSITY FOR YOU
(Part 2)
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STEP 3:
A Special Note About University Rankings
You've probably seen the annual
Maclean's Magazine
University Rankings issue that claims to rank universities in a fair and objectionable
manner.
Although this is a good idea, there are several flaws to their
rating systems.
- Does it really matter how many out of
province or international students a university has?
- Why do the university's library
holdings play such a big part of its rating when almost everything is on
the Internet nowadays?
- What do administrative expenses
have to do with the value of the student's university education?
- Are students best taught by a Ph.D.
professor whose actual job description emphasizes research and
not teaching?
- Class sizes are relevant to a
point but are students taught any better when they're being lectured in a
75 student class or one of 200 or 500?
- Why don't they compare universities
faculty by faculty and not in the general sense that they are using.
In this day of age, when each school is specializing in a certain
field, it's unfair to compare apples to oranges.
If you are
still interested in seeing the results, pay close attention to the
universities' reputation based on surveys to executives, teachers,
and principals. This may be a good indicator of the university's quality but
it also has flaws.
- Are reputations based on fact or
fiction?
- How much do teachers, guidance
counselors and principals really know about each university? Do they see
the results of graduates?
- Are reputations up to date?
These are good questions to ask yourself,
especially if the university you're interested in, is in the process of
re-organizing and improving its programs. You shouldn't let a magazine
decide which school is best for you. You be the judge!
Recently, one of Canada's national newspapers
has also gotten into the action but The Globe and Mail
University Report
Card has a different approach. In conjunction with its partners,
the rankings are based on the results of online surveys sent to a 'random' sample of university students at each
Canadian university.
This system also
raises some questions:
- Most survey invitations were e-mailed to
members of a specific web site (in this case, an online Canadian
scholarship database web site).
Does this method provide an unbiased representative sample of a university's student population?
- It is well known that students of
certain universities have "snobbish" attitudes based on tradition,
elitism and other opinions.
Did the students of these schools provide truthful and accurate opinions of their campus and faculty?
- On the other hand, students of some
universities are known to have higher expectations and are not embarrassed
to bring up issues, big or small.
With such attitudes prevalent at these universities, did student respondents rate their campus and faculty too harshly?
- Very few undergraduate students have
studied at multiple universities and can't fairly compare university
services and education standards without basing their opinions on stories
they've heard from friends at other universities, some of which are true
while others are not.
Are students' expectations of post-secondary education and campus services the same across the nation?
- Once again, universities are compared as
a whole. Like the Maclean's rankings, universities are not ranked based on
faculty.
A well-respected American by the name of
Dr. Jack Gourman also compares Canadian universities to their U.S.
counterparts.
The Gourman Report provides yet
another university rating system.
Have a look!
Some of the ratings may surprise you!