University of Alberta Edmonton, Canada 29 November 1996

Senate supports proactive marketing campaign to combat Maclean's ranking and to demonstrate U of A's accomplishments

Still problems with Maclean's survey methodology, President Rod Fraser tells Senate members

By David Holehouse and Michael Robb

Number eight last year, and number eight this year. That's where the recent Maclean's Magazine survey of Canadian universities has ranked the University of Alberta. But according to a number of senior administrators and Senate members on campus, this is not where the University should be.

At its regular meeting 22 November, Senate members passed a motion to support a proactive marketing program which focusses on published data emphasizing the U of A's accomplishments. The motion followed a lengthy discussion about the impact of the recent Maclean's Magazine ranking.

"I think we should be in fifth spot, if it was an equal playing field and everyone responded in the same way," President Rod Fraser said.

Two areas in the rankings cause us a great deal of angst, President Fraser told Senate members. First, the rankings don't adequately take into account the U of A's outstanding library resources. While the University's library is ranked second in Canada by the Association of Research Libraries, the magazine ranks the U of A's acquisitions and expenses seventh and sixth respectively. And second, the President outlined, the ranking of the student body does not take into account the grade inflation occurring in Ontario. Yet, in a recent international survey, Alberta and BC ranked well ahead of Ontario and Quebec in mathematics and science examinations.

"We've been ineffective so far in getting Maclean's to say anything other than, 'Well, you may have a point there'."

The Maclean's survey uses 22 performance measures that, it believes, provide a snapshot of how universities are doing. The survey gives some indication of how each university compares with others in its category, and how it compares with its own record of a year earlier.

The University places eighth among 13 medical/doctoral universities. Here are some highlights:

• Reputation with counsellors and CEOs is on the rise;
• The campus is attracting more out-of-province students;
• Operating expenditures per student have fallen; the size and number of scientific research grants generated are down slightly;
• The percentage of first-year classes taught by tenured or tenure-track professors is down;
• More is being spent on bursaries and scholarships and more students on campus are winning national awards; and,
• The U of A spends more than any other in its class on student services.

Maclean's methodology and conclusions are, naturally, viewed as imperfect by many who analyse the rankings. They do, however, have an impact on the reading public. The fact is, says Senate member Emily Sylvester, the reason the rankings get so much attention is that parents and students are looking for simple ways of ranking the institutions. But added Senate member Gerd Andres, parents may see the University of Toronto as the best, but it may not be in select areas. For example, if you want to study agriculture in this country, Guelph and Alberta are the places to go, he suggested.

"The really important thing to use is our own quality," says Doug Owram, Vice-President (Academic). "But we can't pretend that this doesn't have an effect on student recruitment, donors and so on."

Under some performance measurements, a university can move up or down a complete grade on the basis of a minuscule change in percentages or numbers. Last year, the University of Alberta ranked lower than the next highest university for average entrance grade of students just because of a 0.2 per cent difference. At the same time, Maclean's assigns a whopping 12 per cent of total weight to that one performance category. Another bone of contention is that Alberta grades its high school students using standardized tests, whereas Ontario doesn't. There's a feeling that comparisons are not really fair.

The Maclean's ranking points out a couple of weaker areas where Dr Owram would like to see the University of Alberta improve-such as the number of scientific research grants garnered and class sizes. The President told Senators that the upcoming fund-raising campaign should help improve the alumni support category. The U of A ranks 12 of 13.

The bottom line for Dr Owram, though, is that the University of Alberta can hold its head high next to any of the other campuses in its elite medical/doctoral class surveyed by Maclean's.

Reuben Kaufman, President of the Association of Academic Staff, dismissed the Maclean's rankings as a charade and criticized university leaders for cooperating in the exercise for the sake of "free advertising".

"I have no objection to any external body evaluating universities, but I do have a great objection to the key performance indicators being totally faulty and misleading," he said. "If you want to pursue discipline X, maybe school number one isn't the best place to do it. It's doing the public a huge disservice to make them think you can rank universities as a whole this way.

"It's disappointing that university administrations are passing this information to Maclean's when the indicators the magazine is using are nonsense. We are supposed to be guardians of truth, academic integrity and clear thinking."

"We've come through three years of funding cuts, and those cuts have now ended", says Dr Owram. "Other universities are just starting to go into the cycle, so I'm confident we'll see our ranking improve in the near future. We can also continue to emphasize our own measures of excellence, such as the 3M teaching awards. We attract 80 per cent of all the Alberta students achieving 90 per cent and better, so we are getting the elite students. If you take out the (Maclean's) average entering grade issue, it puts us in a strong position."

Senate member Bill Erasmus said he liked the idea of getting the University's own data out into the public, rather than relying on guidance counsellors and company CEOs to determine the University's reputation.

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