McGill University, established in 1821, is in the city of Montreal, Quebec, Canada. One of the oldest universities in Canada, it has long been considered to be one of the most prestigious universities in the country and among the finest in North America.
Known to some as "The Harvard of the North", McGill is well-known for its pioneering research in the medical sciences, chemistry, physics and biology. The university is also famous for its high standard of undergraduate education and has an established history in the humanities, social sciences, law and physical education. In the past, McGill has often been compared with the best U.S. schools (The Gourman Report).
Noted for being a research-intensive university, it frequently garners the most research dollars nationwide (per faculty) from federal and provincial sources of funding (including CFI, NSERC and other organizations).
For a long time, McGill was considered Canada's best university. In the late 1990's, the University of British Columbia and the University of Toronto outpaced McGill in some respects. This change was linked to the decline of Montreal's economic importance relative to Toronto and Vancouver and the greater ease of raising money in the latter two cities. McGill's decline was also due in part to severe underfunding by the Quebec government in the 1990s.
However, since 2001, McGill's financial standing has been steadily improving, due to private donations and matching funds from the provincial government. In fact, McGill's endowment is number one in the country on a per capita basis. National rankings of Canadian Universities have also shown McGill rebounding to the top of the class, where McGill ranked #2 in the annual Maclean's survey of Canadian Universities in 2003. The university also has the distinction of having the highest publication intensity in the country for many years, and this was one of the factors leading to it being ranked #1 as Research University of the Year in 2003. (http://www.researchinfosource.com/top50.shtml) |
