Mount Allison ranks #1 undergraduate university in Canada by Macleans
From the Springboard Content Lab
Congratulations to Springboard member Mount Allison University on being ranked as top undergraduate university in Canada for 2026. The ranking, released by Maclean’s magazine in October 2025, also ranked a dozen Springboard institutions in its top-20 in various categories.
Mount Allison, Sackville, NB, has been recognized by Maclean’s annual university rankings as the top primarily undergraduate university in Canada 26 times, more than any other undergraduate university in the country.
“Being recognized once again as Canada’s top undergraduate university reflects the collective commitment of our students, faculty, staff, and alumni. Mount Allison offers a transformative learning experience — one that inspires curiosity, creates meaningful connections, and prepares our students to lead and adapt in a rapidly changing world”.
Mount Allison President and Vice-Chancellor Dr. Ian Sutherland
For more than three decades, Maclean’s has collected the data and crunched the numbers to evaluate Canadian universities.
Springboard members in top 20 best primary undergraduate universities
Universities in this category specialize in undergraduate education and offer relatively few graduate programs
- # 3 Acadia University, Wolfville, NS
- #4 St. Francis Xavier University, Antigonish, NS (also ranked #1 in undergraduate reputation!)
- #5 Saint Mary’s University, Halifax, NS.
- #11 University of Prince Edward Island, Charlottetown, PEI
- #12 St. Thomas University, Fredericton, NB
- #14 Université de Moncton, Moncton, NB
- #17 Mount Saint Vincent University, Halifax, NS
- #19 Cape Breton University, Sydney, NS
Other Atlantic Canadian university rankings
Dalhousie University placed in the top 10 best Medical Doctoral universities in Canada in the Maclean rankings.
The university ranked 9th overall out of 15 schools included in the category, which tracks institutions with a broad range of PhD programs and research as well as medical schools.
In the category of Canada’s Best Comprehensive Universities for 2026, two Springboard members reached the top 10. The University of New Brunswick ranked seventh and Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador ranked eighth.
Macleans ranking methodology
Maclean’s annual university rankings continue a tradition established in 1991: to provide essential information in a comprehensive package to help students choose the university that best suits their needs.
Maclean’s puts universities into three categories, recognizing the differences in types of institutions, levels of research funding, diversity of offerings, and breadth and depth of graduate and professional programs. Primarily, Undergraduate universities tend to be smaller and have fewer graduate programs and graduate students. Universities in the Comprehensive category have a significant degree of research activity and a wide range of programs at the undergraduate and graduate levels, including professional degrees. Medical Doctoral universities offer a broad range of Ph.D. programs and research; all universities in this category have medical schools.
In each category, Maclean’s ranks institutions in five broad areas based on 12 performance indicators, allocating a weight to each indicator. Figures for the ranked universities include data from their federated and affiliated institutions. The magazine does not rank schools with fewer than 1,000 full-time students, those that are restrictive because of a religious or specialized mission, newly designated universities, or those that are not members of the national association Universities Canada.