I was wrong when I said the University of Guelph has lost its reputation as a leading agricultural college.
In fact, it is ranked 12th among
agricultural universities and fifth in North America in the most recent
assessment by U.S. New and World Report.
It is the 30th report by the magazine.
The top two schools were
Wageningen University in the Netherlands and the University of California,
Davis.
By categories, Guelph
ranked 38th in plant and animal science and 91st in environment/ecology.
“Our overall impact is due
to the quality and exceptional efforts of our faculty, staff and students,”
said Rob Gordon, dean of the Ontario Agricultural College (OAC) in a news
release from the university.
“Their commitment, passion
and dedication to identifying new innovations and discoveries that support the
growth and significance of our agriculture and food sectors are the reasons for
this global recognition and a key area of differentiation for U of G,” Gordon
said.
In North America, Cornell,
the University of Florida and Harvard were all ahead of Guelph for agriculture.
But Guelph was ahead of
many well-known agricultural universities such as Iowa State, Purdue, Texas
A&M and state universities in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Michigan and
Minnesota.
Guelph gets a huge boost from the provincial government's funding for agricultural research. That pays for a lot of faculty and so the student:faculty ratio always looks great.
As for how much the university contributes to the economy, I still believe it does a lousy job of commercializing its research.
