Choosing a university is one of the most important decisions students make in their post-secondary careers. Another is deciding what to study. And sometimes, the second decision helps inform the first, with students selecting a certain university because of a particular program it offers. In our ninth annual program rankings, we evaluate how Canadian universities measure up in the programs they offer in five popular fields in the sciences and social sciences, based on the programs’ reputations for quality and research strength.

Maclean’s contacted faculty and senior administrators at universities across Canada, seeking their views in an online survey. We asked academics if their area of expertise was in any of the following five disciplines: business, computer science, education, engineering or nursing. If so, they were asked to list up to 10 universities that they felt offered the best programs and conducted the best research in their discipline. In the end, 1,200 professors, deans and chairs at 70 universities responded.

The following charts show the results for the top 20 universities in each program area, based on the survey results. The program reputation column and the research reputation column show how each university placed on those two questions among all the schools surveyed. Program reputation and research reputation contributed equally to the final results; both were weighted at 50 per cent.