Our small but mighty university continues to pack a punch, and others are noticing! In Maclean’s Magazine’s annual rankings of universities in Canada, Acadia has moved up a spot from fifth to fourth place for Canada’s best primarily undergraduate universities.

Since the Maclean’s university rankings were first established in 1991, Acadia has consistently placed in the top five.

The profile of Acadia cites our student-run farm that supplies the dining hall and our private research island as stand-out features of the university. Another highlight is our overall focus on sustainability and environmental studies, with Acadia taking part in multi-institution research like the NSERC-funded Flax Fibre to Fabric project. The close-knit campus community, with over one third of students living on campus also distinguishes Acadia.

Another feature of Acadia that sets us apart in the rankings is our strong offering of experiential learning opportunities, like Acadia's Centre for Sensory Research of Food. With more than 90 per cent of co-op students landing work terms in 2023, Acadia grads are well positioned for life after graduation!

Acadia’s Community Development, Computer Science, and Law & Society programs are particular standouts among our academic programs. The student-initiated lab that led to all first-year biology students learning about traditional Mi’kmaw plants also received a hat tip.

Acadia President, Jeff Hennessy, is quoted in the profile, saying “the world needs more critical thinkers, problem solvers, creators, leaders, and communicators. The personalized liberal arts education provided by Acadia is vital and increasingly rare, and it is upon us to work together to deliver the Acadia promise to our students so they can be prepared to confront the challenges of an increasingly complex world.”

In addition to our strong showing in the overall category for primarily undergraduate universities, Acadia also came in with high rankings in more specialized categories.

Acadia’s faculty and students were both recognized for, well, being recognized! Our faculty, who won awards like Teacher of the Year, and our students, who brought home awards like the prestigious 3M National Student Fellowship Award, earned us fifth place in faculty awards and sixth place in the student award categories. Our small class sizes got a nod once again, holding us steady at fifth place in the student/faculty ratio category. Acadia students earned an outstanding amount of funding, placing us in seventh in the scholarships and bursaries category.