Take THAT, Maclean's

Memo received from the university president at work today. He was writing to inform all faculty and staff that Dalhousie has joined eleven other Canadian universities in withdrawing from the university rankings compiled annually by Maclean's magazine. His justification, and a copy of the letter sent to Maclean's, is online here.

It's a principled stand, and one which I support. In the fifteen-odd years since Maclean's started its university rankings, I've always been uneasy about its methods, which often seemed rather arbitrary and smacked of a consumer-driven, American-style approach to higher education. Fundamentally, the group of eleven institututions now withdrawing from the rankings (including UBC, University of Alberta, Simon Fraser, McMaster, and University of Toronto) is protesting against the methodology used by the magazine.

It's not sour grapes, either. Most of the eleven are classed by the magazine in the medical-doctoral university category, and they form eight of last year's Top 15 medical-doctoral institutions (with Toronto tying for first place!).

It will be very interesting to see how Maclean's responds to this action.