The 2016 edition of Canada’s Top 50 Research Colleges was released on Thursday — and Algonquin College continues its upward performance.
The College is now in 20th spot in the rankings, up from 24th in 2015.
“This is a great motivation boost for our Algonquin College community as we continue to deliver in our strategic priorities around innovation and entrepreneurship,” said Cristina Holguin-Pando, Director, Partnerships, Applied Research & Innovation, and Entrepreneurship. “It’s a journey that really gained momentum through our current strategic plan, and will be consolidated in the new strategy documents that will see Algonquin College at the forefront, delivering an education model based on innovation and entrepreneurship leadership in a few years ahead.”
Other stats from the report include:
• Algonquin’s research income rose 51.1 per cent from the previous period, taking the fourth spot in research income percentage growth.
• Algonquin is now third in the number of paid students conducting research among Canada’s large colleges.
• Algonquin takes the seventh spot in the country in terms of faculty members leading research projects.
• In total grants received from the federal government’s Tri-Council (NSERC, SSHRC and CIHR) in the 2011-2015 period, Algonquin ranks fourth across Canada with more than $6 million research income.
“It is truly rewarding to evidence the college’s success by consistently increasing the number of faculty, and of course students, engaged in applied research projects,” said Holguin-Pando. “While it is always exciting attaining growing levels of funding, the reality is that funding availability is in decline, making it increasingly challenging.”
The report, compiled by Research Infosource Inc., noted that combined research income of 15 Ontario colleges fell by 4.6 per cent.
“Although many individual colleges performed well the total Ontario college income drop of 4.6 per cent somewhat underperformed the national trend of 0.5 per-cent growth,” said Ron Freedman, CEO of Research Infosource, in a press release. “Of concern is that industry funding of college research in the province declined by -21.8 per cent, falling to $2.9 million. The positive news is that the number of formal research partnerships grew by 37.6 per cent and the number of completed research projects expanded by 17.5 per cent.”
And Holguin-Pando said there are plenty of signs that Algonquin is on the right track.
“The best indicator, the real success story here, is in our ability to provide our faculty and our students with opportunities to meaningfully engage with industry partners in solving real-life problems that are at the cutting edge of technology,” she said. “This is what we do best.”
More information, and the full rankings, are available here.
