Maclean’s Canadian University Rankings 2022: Medical Doctoral, Comprehensive, Primarily Undergraduate, and Student Satisfaction

For years, students looking to pursue a post-secondary education in Canada have relied on Maclean’s University Rankings to help make their decision about where to study a little easier. 

Earlier this week we took a look at the top schools by reputation. Today we’ll explore: 

• Top medical doctoral schools 
• Top comprehensive schools 
• Top primarily undergraduate schools 
• Top schools by student satisfaction

ApplyBoard Partner Schools

Maclean’s Top Universities by Student Satisfaction, Top Medical Doctoral, Top Comprehensive Schools, and Top Primarily Undergraduate Schools lists include an incredible 26 Canadian ApplyBoard partner schools! We consider ourselves fortunate to work with each of our partner schools on our shared mission to educate the world.

*Denotes a tie

• Acadia University (Primarily Undergraduate 5, Primarily Undergraduate 6)
• Brandon University (Primarily Undergraduate 18, Student Satisfaction–Primarily Undergraduate 15)
• Bishop’s University (Primarily Undergraduate 12, Student Satisfaction–Primarily Undergraduate 13)
• Brock University (Comprehensive 5, Student Satisfaction–Comprehensive 6)
• Cape Breton University (Primarily Undergraduate 19, Student Satisfaction–Primarily Undergraduate 12)
• Carleton University (Comprehensive 5, Student Satisfaction–Comprehensive 6)
• Lakehead University (Primarily Undergraduate 8, Student Satisfaction–Primarily Undergraduate 18)
• Laurentian University (Primarily Undergraduate 15, Student Satisfaction–Primarily Undergraduate 19)
• Mount Allison University (Primarily Undergraduate 2, Student Satisfaction–Primarily Undergraduate 11)
• Memorial University of Newfoundland (Comprehensive 8, Student Satisfaction–Comprehensive 14)
• Mount Saint Vincent University (Primarily Undergraduate 17, Student Satisfaction–Primarily Undergraduate 17)
• Nipissing University (Primarily Undergraduate 16, Student Satisfaction–Primarily Undergraduate 5)
• Ontario Tech University (Primarily Undergraduate *9, Student Satisfaction–Primarily Undergraduate 8)
• Ryerson University (Comprehensive 8, Student Satisfaction–Comprehensive 14)
• St. Thomas University (Primarily Undergraduate 13, Student Satisfaction–Primarily Undergraduate 7)
• Trent University (Primarily Undergraduate 3, Student Satisfaction–Primarily Undergraduate 2)
• University of Guelph (Comprehensive 4, Student Satisfaction–Comprehensive 7)
• University of Lethbridge (Primarily Undergraduate 6, Student Satisfaction–Primarily Undergraduate 9)
• University of Ottawa (Medical Doctoral 4, Student Satisfaction–Medical Doctoral 15)
• University of Prince Edward Island (Primarily Undergraduate 7, Student Satisfaction–Primarily Undergraduate 16)
• University of Regina (Comprehensive 12, Student Satisfaction–Comprehensive 15)
• University of Saskatchewan (Medical Doctoral 15, Student Satisfaction–Medical Doctoral)
• University of Waterloo (Best Comprehensive 3, Student Satisfaction–Comprehensive 5)
• University of Windsor (Comprehensive 14, Student Satisfaction–Comprehensive 12)
• Western University (Medical Doctoral *9, Student Satisfaction–Medical Doctoral 3)
• Wilfrid Laurier University (Comprehensive 7, Student Satisfaction–Comprehensive 4)

Canada’s Best Medical Doctoral Schools 2022

Maclean’s defines a medical doctoral school as a university with “a broad range of Ph.D. programs and research, as well as medical schools.”

Overall Ranking	University	Rank Last Year	Student Awards	Student/Faculty Ratio	Faculty Awards	Total Research Dollars	Scholarships & Bursaries	Students Services
1	McGill University	1	1	3	2	3	1	*13
2	University of Toronto	2	3	14	1	1	6	2
3	University of British Columbia	3	2	4	8	9	12	*9
4	McMaster University	4	*9	15	4	2	*14	1
5	Queen’s University	5	5	14	3	10	8	*7
6	University of Alberta	6	7	9	7	8	9	*7
7	University of Ottawa	*8	6	12	6	7	2	3
8	Dalhousie University	7	4	2	5	13	3	*9
*9	Laval University	*11	12	8	11	5	10	*11
*9	Université de Montréal	*11	11	11	10	4	11	*13
*9	Western University	*11	11	11	10	4	11	*13
12	University of Calgary	*8	*9	5	*13	6	5	*11
13	Université de Sherbrooke	13	13	1	15	12	*14	5
14	University of Manitoba	*14	14	7	*13	15	4	4
15	University of Saskatchewan	*14	15	7	12	11	13	15

Canada’s Best Comprehensive Schools 2022 

A comprehensive school is a university with a “significant amount of research activity and a wide range of programs at the undergraduate and graduate level, including professional degrees.”

Overall Ranking	University	Rank Last Year	Student Awards	Student/Faculty Ratio	Faculty Awards	Total Research Dollars	Scholarships & Bursaries	Students Services
*1	Simon Fraser University	1	1	3	*2	3	9	2
*1	University of Victoria	*2	3	5	1	2	3	5
3	University of Waterloo	*2	2	7	*2	4	1	12
4	University of Guelph	4	*8	15	4	1	4	6
5	Carleton University	5	4	8	7	8	6	10
6	York University	*6	*8	14	*5	10	2	9
7	Wilfrid Laurier University	8	12	12	10	14	5	4
8	Memorial University of Newfoundland	9	7	2	9	5	12	13
*9	University of New Brunswick	*6	5	1	*13	7	13	11
*9	Université du Québec à Montréal	*10	6	6	*5	9	14	15
11	Ryerson University	12	14	13	*13	6	11	1
12	Brock University	13	13	*10	8	15	7	7
13	Concordia University	*10	*8	*10	12	13	10	14
14	University of Windsor	14	11	9	11	12	15	3
15	University of Regina	15	15	4	*13	11	8	8

Canada’s Best Primarily Undergraduate Schools 2022

The third type of institution, primarily undergraduate, is a university “largely focused on undergraduate education, with relatively fewer graduate programs and graduate students.”

Overall Ranking	University	Rank Last Year	Student Awards	Student/Faculty Ratio	Faculty Awards	Total Research Dollars	Scholarships & Bursaries	Students Services
1	University of Northern British Columbia	5	1	2	2	3	8	9
2	Mount Allison University	1	*2	3	*9	13	1	14
3	Trent University	*8	*6	19	8	6	2	3
4	Saint Mary’s University	4	*2	14	5	9	6	*10
5	Acadia University	3	*6	5	6	12	7	7
6	University of Lethbridge	2	5	10	*13	5	17	8
7	University of Prince Edward Island	10	4	4	1	8	*4	19
8	Lakehead University	*8	*6	15	3	4	*4	*10
*9	Ontario Tech University	11	*13	18	*15	2	10	6
*9	St. Francis Xavier University	6	*10	11	*13	14	12	15
11	Université de Moncton	13	*6	1	*11	11	11	18
12	Bishop’s University	7	12	16	7	16	13	2
13	St. Thomas University	14	*16	6	*15	19	3	4
14	The University of Winnipeg	16	15	17	*15	7	18	13
15	Laurentian University	12	*10	9	4	1	*14	17
16	Nipissing University	15	*16	13	*11	18	9	1
17	Mount Saint Vincent University	18	*13	12	*9	15	*14	16
18	Brandon University	17	*18	*7	*15	17	16	5
19	Cape Breton University	19	*18	*7	*15	10	19	12

Canada’s Top Universities by Student Satisfaction 2022

To determine the Top Universities by Student Satisfaction, Maclean’s surveyed more than 19,000 students across Canada on a variety of questions, including: 

• Professors and staff
• Residence life
• Extracurricular activities
• Experiential education, e.g., co-op
• Mental health services
• On-campus sexual assault prevention
• Indigenous histories, cultures, and languages visibility 

Maclean’s ranks the best universities by student satisfaction across the three categories of institutions previously defined: medical doctoral, comprehensive, and primarily undergraduate.

Medical Doctoral

Overall Ranking	University
1	Université de Sherbrooke
2	Laval University
3	Western University
4	Queen’s University
5	Université de Montréal
6	McGill University
7	McMaster University
8	University of Manitoba
9	University of Saskatchewan
10	Dalhousie University
11	The University of British Columbia
12	University of Alberta
13	University of Toronto
14	University of Calgary
15	University of Ottawa

Comprehensive

Overall Ranking	University
1	Université du Québec à Montréal
2	University of Victoria
3	Brock University
4	Wilfrid Laurier University
5	University of Waterloo
6	Carleton University
7	University of Guelph
8	University of New Brunswick
9	Ryerson University
10	Concordia University
11	Simon Fraser University
12	University of Windsor
13	York University
14	Memorial University of Newfoundland
15	University of Regina

Primarily Undergraduate

Overall Ranking	University
1	St. Francis Xavier University
2	Trent University
3	Université de Moncton
4	University of Northern British Columbia
5	Nipissing University
6	Acadia University
7	St. Thomas University
8	Ontario Tech University
9	University of Lethbridge
10	The University of Winnipeg
11	Mount Allison University
12	Cape Breton University
13	Bishop’s University
14	Saint Mary’s University
15	Brandon University
16	University of Prince Edward Island
17	Mount Saint Vincent University
18	Lakehead University
19	Laurentian University

Join us tomorrow for the final installment of the Maclean’s University Rankings 2022 as we explore top schools by program, including biology, computer science, education, engineering, and nursing!

Ready to start your study abroad journey in Canada? Explore top schools on ApplyBoard.