North Oshawa school tops Maclean’s national university rankings in two categories; seventh overall
Published November 1, 2024 at 11:31 am
Ontario Tech, just two decades old, has climbed to the top of undergraduate universities in Canada for reputation and is seventh overall, according to the latest post-secondary rankings by Maclean’s magazine.
The north Oshawa university was also ranked number one for social science and humanities grants, #2 for total research dollars and library acquisitions and number three for medical/sciences grants.
Not bad for a school that only came into existence in 2002 and welcomed its first cohort of students in 20023.
“Ontario Tech is very proud of its achievements in the 2025 Maclean’s rankings. Our reputational momentum reflects our growth in student satisfaction, our expanding research capacity and partnerships, and our commitment to excellence in all our teaching and learning practices,” said university president and vice-chancellor Dr. Steven Murphy. “These successes contribute to our steady applications and enrollment growth and it’s why more Ontario students choose our university for their post-secondary studies.”
The Maclean’s data affirms the university’s status as one of Canada’s youngest research-intensive universities, with its overall ranking of seventh up one spot from last year and up from #15 in 2012.
The school’s top ranking for reputation is also a significant leap, with Ontario Tech ranked #11 in the Maclean’s rankings in 2017.
With core strength in experiential- and work-integrated learning, the university has also seen major growth in applications over the years that has outpace the provincial system average, making it a school where “career-minded students want to be.”
While Ontario Tech is categorized as a ‘primarily undergraduate’ university with 85 program options and 30 college-to-university transfer programs, the university’s graduate program offerings have expanded to 40 master’s and doctoral programs and with a growing number of postdoctoral fellows, underscoring the importance of research in enhancing the student experience.
Mount Allison University in Sackville, New Brunswick and the University of Northern British Columbia in Prince George topped the overall rankings for undergraduate schools, followed by St. Mary’s (Halifax) and Acadia (Wolfville) in Nova Scotia and Ontario universities Lakehead (Thunder Bay) and Trent (Peterborough, with a campus in Oshawa) before Ontario Tech comes in at #7.
Prince Edward Island (Charlottetown), Bishops (Lennoxville, Quebec) and St. Francis Xavier (Antigonish, Nova Scotia) round out the top ten.
