Two Ontario universities make top 100 list for agriculture

Wednesday, November 5, 2014

by SUSAN MANN

The University of Guelph's twelfth spot rating for agricultural sciences in a ranking of universities globally is fantastic, says Rob Gordon, dean of the university's Ontario Agricultural College.

"It's a testament to the people that work at our institution along with the strong and long-term relationship we have with government, particularly with our provincial and federal governments," he says. The university also has a strong relationship with the agricultural industry, which continues to "support our research and that translates into meaningful discoveries and innovations for the sector."

The university placed just behind Harvard University and was fifth in North America for agricultural sciences in the first-ever U.S. News & World Report global ranking.

The rating is a strong indication both the university and the agricultural college have "world class people that are delivering on a significant research mandate," he says.

Gordon says his initial thoughts on hearing the university's ranking were that "this is an example of the tremendous amount of hard work by many, many people within our institution" and of its solid relationships with government and the industry.

The university was one of two Ontario that made the top 100 in agricultural sciences on the 2015 Best Global Universities Report. The University of Toronto also just made the list at number 100.

Five other Canadian institutions made the grade: University of British Columbia, (21), University of Alberta (51), McGill University in Montreal (61), University of Saskatchewan (84) and University of Manitoba (88).

The report determined the world's top universities overall and then ranked them by 21 subjects. The ranking of the best universities for agricultural sciences globally was based on reputation and research in the field, including food science, nutrition, dairy science, horticulture and agronomy.

In total, 500 institutions across 49 countries were rated. Wageningen University in The Netherlands and the University of California, Davis were the top two agricultural sciences schools in the world.

The report was released on Oct. 27.

Gordon says the university plans to try and improve its rating. "We'd certainly like to be in the top 10 and we're going to continue to strive for excellence. Our goal is to continue to get better at everything we do."

For the agricultural industry, the university's ranking "provides confirmation their continued support for us is extremely worthwhile," he says. BF