University of Guelph among top 50 in international agricultural program rankings

Friday, May 10, 2013

by SUSAN MANN

The University of Guelph finished 32nd in an international ranking of top agricultural and forestry universities.

British-based university ranking organization, QS World University Rankings, released the results recently. In the top spot was University of California, Davis, while Wageningen University in The Netherlands finished second and Cornell University in New York State was third.

This is the first time the organization has ranked schools in the agriculture and forestry division. It has provided university rankings for three years and is considered to be one of the most influential university ranking providers in the world.

Finishing slightly ahead of the University of Guelph was the University of British Columbia at number 27 as the top Canadian university in the rankings, but Rob Gordon, dean of Guelph’s Ontario Agricultural College, says that was mainly because of the West Coast university’s forestry programs. McGill University in Quebec was ranked 46th, while Laval University also in Quebec was ranked 60th. University of Alberta was 86th while University of Saskatchewan was 94th and University of Toronto was 95th.

The ranking company evaluated 2,858 universities and ranked 678 of those institutions in 30 subject areas. The company used six indicators to rank each university. They are:

• Academic reputation.
• Employer reputation.
• Citations per faculty.
• Faculty-student ratio.
• Proportion of international students.
• Proportion of international faculty.

Gordon says there are a lot of assessments of universities being done now. “We do view ourselves as Canada’s preeminent agricultural and food university and specifically Ontario Agricultural College (OAC) as being primarily responsible for that reputation.”

The criteria the company used had a huge impact on the ranking results, he says, noting Guelph does pay attention to how outside organizations view the university.

“This a good benchmark for us to continue to move forward and do things better but at the same time one thing we’re really proud of is the role we play in supporting Ontario,” he explains. During the past five years, enrollment at the OAC has increased by about 30 per cent in total.

OAC works hard to ensure graduates get jobs. “There’s a huge job market available for OAC graduates,” he says. “That’s our thrust moving forward is to continue to satisfy the Ontario need for highly qualified people working in the agriculture and food industries.”

Guelph works very closely with the top three-ranked universities, he notes. In particular, the university started to develop a working relationship with Cornell and will have more student exchanges and more opportunities to partner with the Ithaca, New York-based university on research. “We’re really sharing our commitment to agriculture and food training more closely with them,” he says. BF