Dalhousie's strengths propelled it into third spot overall in Canada in the mid-size university category in the 2027 Maclean's University Rankings released this week.
Universities in the category — defined as schools with between 10,000 and 30,000 full-time equivalent students — are ranked on 15 indicators across four key areas with different weights.
Those areas include Student Experience and Success (28%), Faculty Quality (25%), Student Resources and Support (32%), and Reputation (15%), which when combined produce an overall ranking for each school.
Dal ranked top in Canada across a range of indicators, including faculty awards, research impact, scholarships and bursaries, and reputation.
Maclean's used the following data source or definition for these indicators:
- Faculty awards: Major faculty awards earned over five years.
- Research impact: OpenAlex; share of output among the top 10% most cited.
- Scholarships & Bursaries: Statistics Canada; spending on scholarships and bursaries as a share of operating expenditures.
- Reputation: Angus Reid survey; external views on university quality and innovation.
Dal's other areas of strength included student/faculty ratio, social sciences and humanities grants, and operating budget, where it ranked second across the country. It also placed third for student awards.
A revamped framework
This year's Maclean's rankings, released Wednesday (Oct. 14), were carried out using an updated format that groups universities into small, medium, and large categories based on size. Previously, Dal was ranked in the medical-doctoral category along with universities far larger than it.
Individual indicator scores are not provided in the ranking.
Learn more about the Maclean’s methodology and find full details for Dal’s performance and this year’s rankings.