Laurentian University ranked 15th out of 19 primarily undergraduate universities in the Maclean’s Magazine annual university rankings.
This is the same ranking it had a year ago, although two years ago, Laurentian was in 12th place in its category.
In early 2021, Laurentian declared insolvency and filed for creditor protection under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act (CCAA), making widespread cuts to its programs and employees in April of that year.
The university hopes to exit the CCAA in November after creditors voted in favour of a debt plan.
Last year, the now outgoing Laurentian president Robert Haché explained that Maclean’s rankings are derived from data that are mostly “slipped” by at least one year. This could mean the impacts of the CCAA are still not factored into all of LU’s data.
Maclean’s has also released its rankings of Canada’s best universities by reputation, following a survey of university faculty and senior administrators, as well as a variety of businesspeople across the country.
Laurentian is ranked dead last in this category — 19th out of primarily undergraduate universities (it also ranked 19th in the reputational survey in last year’s Maclean’s university issue). It is also ranked last in all of Canada for reputation, or 49th.
The local university is ranked 18th this year for library expenses (17th last year) and 16th for scholarships and bursaries (that’s a drop from 14th last year and 10th the year before). In the category of faculty awards, Laurentian’s ranking decreased from fourth last year to 10th this year.
Laurentian’s best ranking this year was for total research dollars, where it’s in first place (it was also in first place in this category last year).
An area of some improvement is social sciences and humanities grants, where Laurentian’s ranking increased from 13th last year to 10th this year.
Sudbury.com reached out to Laurentian, requesting an interview on the Maclean’s rankings, but the university declined, saying no one was available.
However, the university did send us an internal email penned by outgoing president Haché earlier this month, which addresses the Maclean’s rankings.
“Each fall, the Maclean’s University Rankings are released based on data directly collected by Maclean’s and data supplied by universities across the country,” said Haché, in the email.
“The 2023 edition of these rankings sees Laurentian University ranking similarly to previous years. We expected this would be the case and are optimistic for the years ahead.”
Haché said in the email that the reputation rankings are compiled based on surveys conducted during March, April and May of each year.
“As you’ll recall, in Spring of 2022, Laurentian University was experiencing an exceptionally challenging period,” the email said.
“While we are now on a successful path towards emerging from the CCAA process, this wasn’t the case when the surveys were completed. Compounding the drastic year-over-year comparison is the fact that most of these surveys in the 2022 edition were completed before the realities of the CCAA process began to unfold.
“We know we have a long road ahead of us in rebuilding our national reputation and student satisfaction. We’re committed as faculty and staff to move forward, together, to create a brighter future for Laurentian University. We draw hope from the fact that we have been through the darkest hours and are now building towards the future with an unparalleled commitment.”
Heidi Ulrichsen is the associate content editor at Sudbury.com. She also covers education and the arts scene.
