Acadia University enjoyed a strong showing in this year's edition of The Globe and Mail Canadian University Report. It is a report based on opinion, and our students say they are among the most satisfied in Canada, giving Acadia an ‘A’ grade overall.

This is the eleventh report compiled by the Globe and it is intended to inform prospective students of the views that current students have about their institutions across a range of academic and non-academic factors. Acadia is compared with other institutions in the Globe’s category of very small institutions, those with a population of fewer than 4,000 students.

“Acadia’s overall performance in the Globe’s survey reflects positively on the work we do as a community and the quality of the student experience we offer both inside and outside our classrooms,” said Ray Ivany, Acadia’s President and Vice-Chancellor.

This year, Acadia received A level grades in multiple categories. Most notably, students gave Acadia A+ marks for quality of the teaching and learning environment, academic reputation of our faculty, class size, and sense of personal safety on campus.

“This is the type of high quality we experience every day at Acadia,” said Kyle Power, Acadia Students’ Union Vice-President, Academic. “It is nice to have it validated at a national level by the Globe’s report. The unique university experience offered by small schools like Acadia can sometimes be overlooked. In this survey, very small schools stand out.”

Separate survey questions asked students to rate aspects of each institution’s personality and the Globe assembled its list of top 10 institutions in each of 14 categories. In this portion of the survey Acadia finished in the top 10 institutions in the following categories:

• Emphasis on undergraduate programs
• Spreading resources evenly across all programs
• Locally focused
• Open to trying new approaches and ideas
• Having a curriculum that is more applied and practical than theoretical; and,
• Emphasizes student centered learning where students question, problem-solve, and decide for themselves

The information is collected through an online 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 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.

Click to read the Globe's 2013 Canadian University Report, or share your thoughts on Twitter using the hashtags #CUR2013 and #AcadiaU.

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