Laurier was recently ranked the number one school in Canada for student satisfaction in Maclean’s annual university rankings.
The article has been shared numerous times by proud Golden Hawks, but it made us wonder how many of these students actually understand the university rankings and how they work. What really is student satisfaction?
Looking at the criteria for this award, it’s not difficult to see why Laurier came out on top.
Maclean’s, for the category of student satisfaction, looked into areas such as extracurriculars, course advising, bureaucracy, mental-health services, residence life and student-life staff. Laurier came out as number one for all of these.
However, the last aspect of the category was the prevention of sexual assault, in which we placed third. With our sexual assault policy still awaiting approval by the Board of Governors and having some aspects that groups on campus are finding problematic, it makes us question what other universities must be like if we placed third.
Where does this information come from? Though a sample survey may be effective for some awards, for something like student satisfaction, it seems more beneficial to ask all students.
We need to be critical of the awards we are given and why we are considered to be the best. We also need to be critical of what needs work.
Even if this is just a marketing ploy, it positively affects Laurier students. There is nothing wrong with being proud of accomplishments that our university has worked hard for. If enrolment goes up as a result of this ranking, the university will have more money for student services, which will benefit everyone.
We can be satisfied with knowing we’re the best, but we shouldn’t be totally content while there are still aspects that need work.