A recent study by the Higher Education Strategy Associates (HESA) reports that Western Canada is the new epicentre for post-secondary education. The past two decades have seen the University of British Columbia, the University of Victoria, the University of Alberta, and the University of Saskatchewan out-compete prestigious Ontario schools such as Queen's, McMaster, and the Universities of Waterloo and Western Ontario for academic talent, as well as funding.
This was shown when the Canadian government created 19 Excellence Research Chair awards, new $10-million prizes to go to leading researchers who had established programs at their home universities.
Two researchers at both the Universities of Waterloo and Toronto received recognition, while other Ontario schools struggled, with the University of Ottawa gaining one and Queen’s failing to qualify for any. Meanwhile, the University of Alberta won four and UBC won a total of $24 million.
As a high school student or parent of a soon-to-be a first year student, you shouldn’t assume that this means these universities are better because they received these awards. The reality is that typically knowledge from these prestigious chairs and research grants do not filter down to the undergraduates. Quite frankly, these recipients probably have never and will never teach an undergraduate class. Notice they have been referred to as researchers, so if you hope to do research with these academics then these awards should be very important to you. Otherwise, choose a university that meets all of your individual criteria.
The bottom line is that your needs as an undergrad will be different from your criteria as a masters student or PhD candidate. I believe undergraduate students need great teachers; great researchers who have ‘won’ prestigious chairs and research grants are more or most important to graduate students. This, of course, is not to say that these universities in western Canada don’t have great faculty teaching in their Bachelor degrees.
This report also highlights how difficult it is to evaluate universities. There are many variables that should be assessed when rating a university as better than another. Receiving prestigious chairs and research grants is just one of them. In summary, you really do have to do your own research with your list of what’s important to you. Go west young man/woman or use your own best judgement!
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