Axworthy touts accessibility as Maclean's rates schools

University of Winnipeg president Lloyd Axworthy figures Maclean's magazine is long overdue to start awarding marks to universities for improving accessibility to disadvantaged students capable of earning a degree.

All three Manitoba schools could fare better in the Maclean's rankings if they got credit for accessibility, Axworthy said Thursday.

U of W and Brandon University have both showed slight improvement this year.

Among smaller and predominantly undergraduate universities, U of W moved up from ninth a year ago, to an eight-place tie with the University of Prince Edward Island and St. Mary's University.

BU, meanwhile, moved up to 11th from 13th.

The University of Manitoba was again 15th out of 15 large universities with medical schools.

"We're taking a lead among universities on the community learning front. There's no credit line anywhere, yet that's one of the most challenging issues for universities," Axworthy said.

"There are definitely places where the diversity of the system is under-represented," U of M president David Barnard agreed.

Barnard said that the differences in quality among Canadian universities are very narrow. While there is value in looking at the quality of libraries, research and graduation rates, he said, it is very difficult to design a ranking system or to decide how to assign weights to each category of comparison.

Maclean's now awards 22 per cent of its marks to a school's reputation, based on a small sample of respondents from business, high school guidance counsellors and the universities themselves.

Axworthy said that U of W had the top reputation among small schools in western Canada.

"We're kind of holding our own. We're up against very tight operational budgets -- that's a commendation," said Axworthy.

For the fifth-year in a row, McGill University in Montreal took top spot in the Maclean's rankings for large universities, while the University of Toronto ranked second.

Queen's University, however, fell to third place from second place in 2008, when it tied with Toronto.

For smaller schools across the country, Mount Allison University in New Brunswick placed first and Acadia in Nova Scotia was ranked second.

nick.martin@freepress.mb.ca

-- with files from Canwest News Service

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition November 6, 2009 A12