How Mount Allison came out on top in Maclean’s new university rankings

Mount Allison University has finished first among small universities in Maclean’s 2027 rankings, although this year’s result comes from a different set of competitors and a revised scoring system.

The Sackville university took the top spot in a category of 22 small universities. It previously competed in the primarily undergraduate category, where it placed first 26 times over 35 years. Maclean’s has replaced its old categories with groups based on university size, a decision aimed at making the rankings easier for high school students and their families to use.

“We kind of got this idea of like large, mid-size, and small because we know like a lot of high schoolers will kind of think about what kind of university they want to go to in that way,” said Caroline Bellamy, assistant education editor at Maclean’s.

Bellamy told CHMA that the former medical-doctoral, comprehensive and primarily undergraduate categories were not always easy for prospective students to understand. The editorial team also found that some universities in the same category had little in common, making comparisons difficult. Under the revised system, universities are grouped by size instead of their academic offerings. For the small-university category, Maclean’s set the cutoff at 10,000 students.

Mount Allison’s position at the top came from its performance across several measures. Its strongest results were in faculty awards and library expenses, where it finished first. The university also placed second in student awards and medical and science grants. It was third in scholarships and bursaries, as well as Maclean’s reputation survey.

In a statement issued October 14, Mount Allison president and vice-chancellor Ian Sutherland welcomed the ranking.

“Being ranked #1 once again matters to our community and it is a recognition of the strength of a Mount Allison education,” Sutherland said.

How the rankings changed

Bellamy pointed to student services as an example of the difficulty in comparing universities. She said a university serving around 12,000 students could provide strong services but still struggle to match the resources available at a much smaller institution. Bellamy said the new categories still leave some universities at a disadvantage, since institutions differ in the programs and services they provide.

Maclean’s also introduced four performance indicators this year. Two examine research volume and research impact, while the others measure student retention and graduation rates. Bellamy said Maclean’s looked at what other university rankings were measuring when it added the research indicators. She said those results may be especially useful to students interested in research.

The magazine also wanted to include information about what happens to students after they enrol. Retention and graduation rates were added to give prospective students a longer-term picture of how universities perform, Bellamy said.

The overall rankings are calculated using 15 indicators, each carrying a different weight. Maclean’s adjusted some of those weights for 2027 and removed one measure used in previous years.

Maclean’s also included six additional universities this year, part of an effort Bellamy described to cover more schools offering undergraduate programs.

What first place means this year

Bellamy said the changes make it difficult to compare Mount Allison’s latest result with previous years. Although the university has frequently finished first, its position now reflects a different group of competitors and a revised scoring system. Maclean’s cannot determine whether Mount Allison has improved since last year simply by comparing the two results.

Bellamy said students may find more useful information in the individual rankings than in the overall results. She gave the example of someone interested in medicine who might want to examine a university’s research performance. Other students may be more concerned about the services available to them on campus.

Bellamy said the rankings cannot account for everything students experience at university. Some aspects of campus life cannot be measured through the data Maclean’s collects.