Acadia University earned grades that would make any parent proud in this year's edition of the Globe and Mail Canadian University Report.

This is the ninth such report compiled by the Globe and it is intended to inform prospective students of the views that current students have about their institutions.

The information is collected through an on-line survey of students, administered by Higher Education Strategy Associates, an education research, policy and strategy firm located in Toronto.  The survey is the largest of its kind in Canada and reflects the opinion of more than 35,000 current undergraduate students. The results are derived from answers to approximately 100 questions, with controls in place to ensure that those included in the sample represent Canadian undergraduates. The universities are then assigned letter grades in various categories.

Acadia is compared with other institutions in the Globe's category of very small institutions, that is, those with fewer than 4,000 students. This year, Acadia placed first in 6 of 17 categories with A level grades. These include student/faculty interaction, teaching, class size, technology, environmental commitment and satisfaction with town/city (a new category this year). This performance compares to three first place finishes last year. Most notably Acadia made significant moves in the categories of student/faculty interaction and teaching. In addition the university moved to a B- rating for food services compared to the D published in last year's report.

There were new questions designed to uncover student opinions about the "personality" of their institution. These questions compared all 59 institutions regardless of size. Student responses to these questions placed Acadia sixth in each of two categories:

• Academically, is your university nurturing and supportive?
• Is your university innovation/open to new approaches and programs?

Acadia also earned top rank in Canada in the section asking if the university is engaged in local issues.

Additional personality categories and top ten finishes for Acadia appear in the on-line version of the report.

To read the Globe's 2011 Canadian University Report, visit www.globecampus.ca