UBC has moved up to second position in overall rankings of Canada's medical/doctoral universities according to the annual survey recently published in Maclean's magazine.
"We are delighted that UBC's excellence is being nationally recognized," said UBC President Martha Piper. "This accomplishment recognizes the hard work and commitment of all UBC faculty and staff. Improvements in areas such as student services demonstrate our success in implementing the goals of Trek 2000. Despite this acknowledgement, however, we must be diligent about ensuring adequate funding to maintain quality education."
UBC had ranked fourth for the previous seven years. It shares this year's second-place spot with Queen's University.
The University of Toronto again placed first overall in the category, which ranks 15 universities with a broad range of PhD programs and research as well as medical schools.
UBC was ranked first in student services as measured as a percentage of budget, in faculty with PhDs and in the number of social sciences and humanities grants earned per faculty member.
It measured third in both the number of students winning national awards and the average entering grade. The average entering grade at UBC is 85.2 per cent.
Library expenses earned a second-place spot with total library holdings being ranked third.
Awards per full-time faculty earned UBC a fourth-place spot, tied with Queen's, and the number of medical/science grants per faculty member received a fifth-place ranking.
Ranking eighth for scholarships and bursaries, the university measured 12th for the size of its operating budget.
UBC class sizes were ranked second smallest -- up from seventh last year --in the first-and second-year level. Class sizes in third and fourth years were ranked as fifth, up from 15th last year. The percentage of first-year classes taught by tenured faculty ranked 13th.
UBC again placed fourth overall in reputation and moved up to second in reputation in the category of leaders of tomorrow. Reputation measured by alumni support moved to a fourth-place spot from last year's sixth place.
Results in the reputation category are based on responses from university officials, corporate recruiters, guidance counselors and chief executive officers.
The Maclean's ranking measures the undergraduate experience at Canadian universities, comparing schools in three peer groupings: medical/doctoral, comprehensive and primarily undergraduate.
The University of Guelph took top place, Simon Fraser University second place and the University of Victoria ranked fourth in the comprehensive category of universities.
The category includes institutions that have a significant amount of research activity and a wide range of programs at the undergraduate and graduate levels, including professional degrees.
Mount Allison University scored first among primarily undergraduate universities. The University of Northern British Columbia ranked eighth.