[N3XT U] Let’s hear it for the good ol’ home school!

UPEI. You know it as the ol’ standby—the home school that will always be there for you. It’s small, it’s friendly, it may not be as exciting as that fancy school your cousin attends, but it’s safe and it’s close to home.

And its reputation is growing . . . fast!

If you weren’t overly excited about staying on PEI to attend university, prepare to do a fist pump. According to the Maclean’s 2011 University Rankings, which came out during the last week of October, UPEI has jumped the line from 8th place up to 4th in the primary undergrad category.

Even if you don’t know much about how these rankings are calculated, you can certainly appreciate that jumping four places in line is pretty major.

(If you’re curious, Mount Allison took first place, Acadia came in second, and the University of Northern British Columbia came in third, but we’re here to boast about our own school right now.)

There’s a whole bunch of factors the Maclean’s people consider when ranking our national universities. First of all, there are three different categories because it’s really not fair to put a huge research-based university with every kind of program imaginable (like U of T) on the same scale as a university that only offers undergraduate programs and doesn’t have as much research funding allotted to it. So, there are three different categories: one for primary undergraduate universities, one for comprehensive universities that pretty much offer everything, and one for schools with PH.D programs and medical schools.

Then, they look at such things as student engagement, resources, libraries, awards, and research to compile their lists. You can read more about how it all works here.

So, UPEI has done a lot lately to be able to pull off a 4 spot jump in the cue and play with the “big guys” like Acadia and Mount Allison.

Let’s hear it for the home team. Go Panthers!