McGill University
Encyclopedia
Mohammed Fathy is a public
research university located in Montreal
, Quebec
, Canada
. The university bears the name of James McGill
, a prominent Montreal merchant from Glasgow
, Scotland
, whose bequest formed the beginning of the university. Founded in 1821, McGill was chartered during the British colonial era
, 46 years before the Canadian Confederation
, making it one of the oldest universities in Canada.
In the Maclean's
21st Annual University Ranking (2011), McGill was ranked dead last in Canada among all institutions offering medical and doctoral degrees, maintaining this ranking for the seventh year in a row. As of 2011, McGill ranked 1st in Canada and 17th in the world in the QS World University Rankings
.
With almost 215,000 living alumni worldwide, students and professors at McGill have been recognized in fields ranging from the arts and sciences, to business, politics, and sports. Notable alumni include eleven Nobel Laureates, one hundred and thirty-two Rhodes Scholars, three astronauts, two Canadian prime ministers, eleven justices of the Canadian Supreme Court
, three foreign leaders
, nine Academy Award winners, three Pulitzer Prize
winners, and twenty-eight Olympic
medalists.
The main campus is set upon 32 hectares (79.1 acre) at the foot of Mount Royal
in Downtown Montreal
. A second campus, the Macdonald Campus
, is situated on 6.5 square kilometres (2.5 sq mi)) of fields and forested land in Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue
, 30 km (18.6 mi) west of the downtown campus. With 21 faculties
and professional schools, McGill offers degrees and diplomas in over 300 fields of study, including medicine and law. Although the language of instruction is English
, students have the right to submit any graded work in English or in French, except when learning a particular language is an objective of the course. Approximately 34,000 students attend McGill, with international students comprising one-fifth of the student population.
. The RIAL continues to exist today; it is the corporate identity
that runs the university and its various constituent bodies, including the former Macdonald College (now Macdonald Campus), the Montreal Neurological Institute
and the Royal Victoria College (the former women's college turned residence). Since the revised Royal Charter of 1852, The Trustees of the RIAL comprise the Board of Governors of McGill University.
One of Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll
`s works as a sculptor is the statue of her Royal mother Queen Victoria erected in front of the Royal Victoria College, Montreal.
James McGill
, born in Glasgow
, Scotland on 6 October 1744, was a successful English and French-speaking
merchant in Quebec, having matriculated into Glasgow University
in 1756. Between 1811 and 1813
he drew up a will leaving his Burnside estate, a
19 hectares (46.9 acre) tract of rural
land and 10,000 pounds
to the Royal Institution for the Advancement of Learning.
Upon McGill's death in December 1813 the Royal Institution for the Advancement of Learning, established in 1801 by an Act of the Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada
, added the establishing of a University pursuant to the conditions of McGill's will to its original function of administering elementary education in Lower Canada
. As a condition of the bequest, the land and funds had to be used for the establishment of a "University or College, for the purposes of Education and the Advancement of Learning in the said Province." The will specified that the college would be required to bear his name and must be established within 10 years of his death; otherwise the bequest would revert to the heirs of his wife.
On March 31, 1821, after protracted legal battles with the Desrivieres family (the heirs of his wife), McGill College received a royal charter
from King George IV
. The Charter provided that the College should be deemed and taken as a University
, with the power of conferring degrees
.
, a military regiment in which James McGill served as the Lieutenant-Colonel. This title is marked upon the stone that stands before the Arts building, from where the Guards step off annually to commemorate Remembrance Day.
Sir John William Dawson
, McGill's principal from 1855 to 1893, is often credited with transforming the school into a modern university. He recruited the aid of Montreal's wealthiest citizens (eighty percent of Canada's wealth was then controlled by families who lived within the "Golden Mile" area that surrounded the university), many of whom donated property and funding needed to construct the campus buildings. Their names adorn many of the campus's prominent buildings. William Spier (architect) designed the
addition of West Wing of the Arts Building for William Molson, 1861 Alexander Francis Dunlop
designed major alterations to the East Wing of McGill College (now called the Arts Building, MCGill University) for Prof. Bovey and the Science Dept., 1888. This expansion of the campus continued until 1920. Buildings designed by Andrew Taylor (Architect)
, include the Redpath Museum
(1880), Macdonald Physics Building (1893), the Redpath Library (1893), the Macdonald Chemistry Building (1896), the Macdonald Engineering Building (1907), and the Strathcona Medical Building (1907)—since renamed the Strathcona Anatomy and Dentistry Building.
In 1885, the university's Board of Governors formally adopted the use of the name McGill University. The Faculty of Law was founded in 1848, making it Canada's oldest. The school of architecture at McGill University was founded in 1896.
Women's education at McGill began in 1884, when Donald Smith
, also known as Lord Strathcona, began funding separate lectures for women, given by university staff members. The first degrees granted to women at McGill were conferred in 1888. In 1899, the Royal Victoria College (RVC) opened as a residential college for women at McGill. Until the 1970s, all female undergraduate students, known as "Donaldas," were considered to be members of RVC. Beginning in the autumn of 2010, the newer Tower section of Royal Victoria College is a co-ed dormitory, whereas the older West Wing remains strictly for women. Both the Tower and the West Wing of Royal Victoria College form part of the university's residence system.
In 1900, the university established the MacLennan Travelling Library. McGill University waltz composed by Frances C. Robinson, was published in Montréal by W.H. Scroggie, c 1904.
In 1905, the university acquired a second campus when Sir William C. Macdonald
, one of the university's major benefactors, endowed a college in Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue, 32 kilometres west of Montreal. Macdonald College, now known as the Macdonald Campus
, opened to students in 1907, originally offering programs in agriculture, household science, and teaching.
McGill established the first post-secondary institutions in British Columbia
to provide degree programs to the growing cities of Vancouver
and Victoria
. It created Victoria College
in 1903, a two-year college offering first and second-year McGill courses in arts and science, which was the predecessor institution to the modern University of Victoria
. The province's first university was incorporated in Vancouver in 1908 as the McGill University College of British Columbia. The private institution granted McGill degrees until it became the independent University of British Columbia
in 1915.
George Allan Ross (architect) designed the Pathological Building, 1922-23; the Neurological Institute, 1933; Neurological Institute addition 1938 at McGill University. Jean Julien Perrault (architect) designed the McTavish Street residence for Charles E. Gravel, which is now called David Thompson House (1934).
The War Memorial Hall (more generally known as Memorial Hall) is a landmark building on the campus of McGill University. At the dedication ceremony the Governor General of Canada (Viscount of Tunis) laid the cornerstone. Dedicated on October 6, 1946, the Memorial Hall and adjoining Memorial Pool honour students who had enlisted and died in the First World War, and in the Second World War. In Memorial Hall, there are two Stained Glass Regimental badge World War I and World War II Memorial Windows by Charles William Kelsey
c. 1950/1. A war memorial window (1950) by Charles William Kelsey
in the McGill War Memorial Hall depicts the figure of St. Michael and the badges of the Navy, Army and the Air Force. Six other windows (1951) by Charles William Kelsey
on the west wall of the memorial hall depict the coats of arms of the regiments in which the McGill alumni were members.
There is a memorial archway at Macdonald College, two additional floors added to the existing Sir Arthur Currie
gymnasium, a hockey rink and funding for an annual Memorial Assembly. A Book of Remembrance on a marble table contains the names of those lost in both World Wars.
The National Film Board of Canada
documentary `Occupation` (1970), directed by Bill Reid, documents the occupation of the offices of the Political Science Department at McGill University in 1970 by striking political science students.` On November 10th, 2011, the Montreal riot police entered McGill University's campus, the first time since March of 1969, after a city-wide student protest against increases in tuition fees that ended in a student occupation of the McGill Principal's office and James Administration Building. As a result, hundreds of protesters, and at least one faculty member, were clubbed, pepper-sprayed, and tear-gassed Five days later, there was an open rally at McGill regarding the events of November 10th. The event was attended by nearly 1,000 students and staff who were virtually unanimous in their denunciation of the McGill administration, headed by Munroe-Blum, and their handling of the November 10th protest and occupation
d or tenure-track professors and 4,300 adjunct and visiting professors teaching at the university.
22% of all students are enrolled in the Faculty of Arts
, McGill's largest academic unit. Of the other larger faculties, the Faculty of Science
enrolls 15%, the Faculty of Medicine
enrolls 13%, the Centre for Continuing Education enrolls 12%, the Faculty of Engineering
and the Desautels Faculty of Management
enroll about 10% each. The remainder of all students are enrolled in McGill's smaller schools, including the Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Dentistry
, Faculty of Education
, Faculty of Law
, Schulich School of Music
, and the Faculty of Religious Studies
. Since the 1880s, McGill has been affiliated with three Theological Colleges
; the Montreal Diocesan
Theological College (Anglican Church of Canada
), The Presbyterian College, Montreal
(Presbyterian Church in Canada
), and United Theological College (United Church of Canada
). The university's Faculty of Religious Studies maintains additional affiliations with other theological institutions and organizations, such as the Montreal School of Theology.
Schools at the university include the School of Architecture, the School of Computer Science
, the School of Dietetics and Human Nutrition, the School of Nursing, the School of Social Work, the School of Urban Planning, and the McGill School of Environment. They also include the Institute of Islamic Studies
(established in 1952) which offers graduate courses leading to the M.A. and Ph.D. degrees, and covering the history, culture, and civilization of Islam since its inception and up to modern times; the Institute is also served by one of the richest libraries in North America on Islamic studies with sources in many languages.
The Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies Office (GPSO) oversees the admission and registration of graduate students (both master's and Ph.D.). GPSO administers graduate fellowships, postdoctoral affairs, and the graduation process, including the examination of theses. In conjunction with other units, it conducts regular program reviews in all disciplines.
Founded in 1956, the McGill Executive Institute
provides business seminars and custom executive education to companies, government services and non-profit organizations. Led primarily by McGill faculty, the executive courses and management training programs are designed for all managerial levels, from board members to senior-level executives to junior managers.
The Institute of Islamic Studies
, "Researchers at McGill are affiliated with about 75 major research centres and networks, and are engaged in an extensive array of research partnerships with other universities, government and industry in Quebec and Canada, throughout North America and in dozens of other countries." Annually, around 100 inventions take place at McGill. In recognition of its research quality, McGill is affiliated with 11 Nobel Laureates and professors have won major teaching prizes. McGill's researchers are supported by the McGill University Library
, which comprises 13 branch libraries and holds over six million items.
Since 1926, McGill has been a member of the Association of American Universities
(AAU), an organization of research
-intensive universities in North America. McGill is also a founding member of Universitas 21
, an international association of research-driven universities. McGill is a member of the G13, a group of prominent research universities within Canada. McGill-Queen's University Press
began as McGill in 1963 and amalgamated with Queen's in 1969. McGill-Queen's University Press focuses on Canadian studies and publishes the Canadian Public Administration Series.
McGill is perhaps best recognized for its research and discoveries in the health sciences. William Osler
, Wilder Penfield
, Donald Hebb
, Brenda Milner
, and others made significant discoveries in medicine
, neuroscience
and psychology
while working at McGill. The Montreal Neurological Institute
is also located in McGill university, where many of these individuals worked. The first hormone governing the Immune System (later christened the Cytokine 'Interleukin-2') was discovered at McGill in 1965 by Gordon & McLean. The invention of the world's first artificial cell was made by Thomas Chang
, an undergraduate student at the university. While chair of physics at McGill, nuclear physicist Ernest Rutherford
performed the experiment that led to the discovery of the alpha particle and its function in radioactive decay, which won him the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1908. Alumnus Jack Szostak, now a professor of genetics at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, was awarded the 2009 Nobel Prize in medicine for discovering a key mechanism in the genetic operations of cells, an insight that has inspired new lines of research into cancer.
William Chalmers invented Plexiglas while a graduate student at McGill. In computing, MUSIC/SP
, software for mainframes once popular among universities and colleges around the world, was developed at McGill. A team also contributed to the development of Archie
, a pre-WWW
search engine. A 3270 terminal emulator developed at McGill was commercialized and later sold to Hummingbird Software.
20th annual University Rankings issue. The university has held first place in student awards for nine consecutive years, and consistently ranks first for reputation, average size, and number of social sciences and humanities grants per full-time faculty. The Gourman Ranking of Canadian Universities also ranked McGill first in Canada in its 1998 report on undergraduate programs.
In the 2011 QS World University Rankings
, McGill was ranked the best university in Canada, the second best public university in North America (behind University of Michigan
), and 17th in the world, going up two places since the 2010 THE-QS World University Rankings (in 2010 Times Higher Education World University Rankings
and QS World University Rankings
parted ways to produce separate rankings). Within specific fields, in 2009 McGill ranked 10th in the life sciences
and biomedicine
, 14th in the arts
and humanities
, 17th in the social sciences
, 26th in the natural sciences, and 20th in technology
. When McGill placed 12th overall in the 2007 ranking, the achievement was regarded as the "highest rank to be reached by a Canadian institution." McGill ranks 28th in the world according to the 2011 Times Higher Education World University Rankings
. In the most recent ranking of world universities by U.S. News & World Report
, McGill university is ranked 18th. In Shanghai Jiao Tong University
's Academic Ranking of World Universities
2011, McGill ranked third in Canada and 64th in the world. In its 2006 ranking of global universities, Newsweek
ranked McGill third in Canada, 30th in North America, and 42nd worldwide. In the 2008 College Prowler Online
rankings for Academics at North American universities, McGill earned an A- for Academics; making it the only Canadian school to achieve a grade above a B-.
In 2009, Forbes
ranked McGill's business school, the Desautels Faculty of Management
, 11th in the world among non-U.S. universities for its two-year MBA program. The Eduniversal
Ranking placed the Desautels Faculty of Management of McGill University first in Canada and 8th in the world among business schools. The Financial Times, in its global MBA ranking, placed Desautels 44th in the world in 2006 and 57th in 2011. The ranking placed it 33rd and 31st worldwide in the value for money and alumni recommended categories respectively. In BusinessWeek
's Best International B-Schools Of 2008, Desautels was ranked among the top 16 international business schools, ranking fourth in intellectual capital with a selectivity of 32%.
Since Maclean's began ranking Canadian law schools in 2007, it has placed McGill's law school second overall for the second year in a row. In particular, McGill's law school, which requires reading knowledge of French and offers the joint B.C.L./LL.B. degree in both civil law and common law, ranked first by supreme court clerkships, second by elite firm hiring, third by faculty hiring, fourth by faculty journal citations
, and eighth by national reach.
The Globe and Mail
s Canadian University Report awarded McGill top marks in its 2008 annual university survey. McGill received an A+ for Academic Reputation, the highest score of any large, medium, or small sized University. Additionally the school received an A- for: most satisfied students, quality of education, extracurricular activities, recreation and athletics, and campus atmosphere; as well as A's in both library services and campus technology. The Canadian University Report awarded McGill's downtown campus a D for its 'on-campus' food services and a C for its on-campus pub Gerts.
In 2007, Research Infosource ranked McGill the second-best research university in the country, after the University of Toronto
.
They also ranked McGill University third in Canada in research-intensity and fourth in total-research funding, finding that McGill ranks in the top five universities in terms of research dollars per full-time faculty member and number of refereed publications per full-time faculty member. The study showed that research funding represents approximately $259,100 per faculty member, the fourth highest in the country.
" in October 2008 and October 2009 by Mediacorp Canada Inc., and was featured in Maclean's
newsmagazine.
The Sustainable Endowments Institute gave McGill a grade of "B" on the 2009 College Sustainability Report Card for its improvements in on-campus environmental sustainability, with only 34 schools earning higher grade.
Playboy
magazine, in its May 2006 issue, ranked McGill as the tenth best party school
in North America. McGill was the only Canadian university in the list.
r-score was 30.1, while the median grade 12 averages for students entering McGill from outside of Quebec ranged between 91% and 92% (A). For American students, the median SAT
scores in the verbal, math, and writing sections were 690, 700, and 690 respectively, for a combined SAT score of around 2070; the median ACT score was 31.
For law students, the median undergraduate GPA was 85% (or 3.7 on a 4.0 scale) and the median LSAT score was 163 (88.1th percentile) out of a possible 180 points. For medical students, the median undergraduate GPA was 3.8 out of 4.0 and the median MCAT score was 32.1. Among the 30% of applicants admitted to the Desautels Faculty of Management's MBA program, applicants had, on average, a GMAT score of 665, an age of 27, and 49 months of work experience.
McGill's main campus is situated in downtown Montreal
at the foot of Mount Royal
. Most of its buildings are situated in a park-like campus located north of Sherbrooke Street
and south of Pine Ave between Peel
and Aylmer streets. The campus also extends west of Peel for several blocks, starting north of Docteur-Penfield. The campus is near the Peel
and McGill
metro
stations. All of the major university buildings were constructed using local grey limestone, which serves as a unifying element.
The university's first classes were held in at Burnside Place, James McGill's country home. Burnside Place remained the sole educational facility until the 1840s, when the school began construction on its first buildings: the central and east wings of the Arts Building. The rest of the campus was essentially a cow pasture
, a situation similar to the few other Canadian universities and early American colleges of the age.
The university's athletic facilities, including Molson Stadium
, are located on Mount Royal, near the residence halls and the Montreal Neurological Institute. The Gymnasium is named in honour of General Sir Arthur William Currie.
(known colloquially
as "rez") after their first year of study, even if they are not from the Montreal area. With the exception of students returning as "floor fellows" or "dons", the majority of McGill residences are for first-year undergraduate students only. Senior students are expected to find off-campus housing.
Many first-year students live in the Bishop Mountain Residences ("Upper Rez"), a series of concrete dormitories on the slope of Mount Royal, consisting of McConnell Hall
, Molson Hall, Gardner Hall, and Douglas Hall. Douglas Hall, which opened in 1937, is distinguished by its impressive stone facade and wood interiors. McConnell, Molson, and Gardner Halls, all built in the 1960s, share a cafeteria
, located at the centre of the three dormitories, known as Bishop Mountain Hall.
Royal Victoria College, the second-largest residence at McGill, was a women's only dormitory; however in September 2010 the dormitory became co-ed. McGill's second newest residence, aptly named New Residence Hall ("New Rez") is a converted four-star hotel located a few blocks east of campus. New Rez is the largest of the university's dormitories. Solin Hall is an apartment-style residence four metro
stops from campus. The McGill Off-Campus Residence Experience (MORE) residences consist of a series of converted apartment buildings and houses, the largest of which is The Greenbriar, an apartment-style residence located across from the Milton Gates.
In autumn 2008, due to increased demand for first-year housing, the University chose to lease four floors of a privately owned apartment building for use as a university residence. The building, called "515 Ste. Catherine", is on the corner of Rue Ste. Catherine and Rue City Councillors, close to campus yet in the heart of downtown Montreal. It was completely renovated and featured a gym, movie theater, and fully furnished apartments. However, the McGill Residence Office decided to forgo use of the building after summer 2009. In April 2009, McGill acquired the Four Points Sheraton Hotel at 475 Sherbrooke Street West. The hotel was converted into a new student residence, which opened in fall 2009. Although it is the newest residence, students either call it Carrefour, or, informally, "C4." Officially, however, the building has been named Carrefour Sherbrooke Residence Hall.
Most second-year students transition to off-campus apartment housing, and apartment hunting is sometimes seen as a rite of passage for McGill students. Many students end up living in the "McGill Ghetto
", the neighbourhood directly to the east of the downtown campus. In recent years, finding affordable housing has been challenging because of the city's tight housing market, particularly in neighbourhoods close to the McGill campus. Students have begun moving out to other areas because of rising rent prices.
One recent initiative turned McGill into a car-free campus.
redevelopment project for the McGill University Health Centre
(MUHC). The project will expand facilities to two separate campuses and consolidate the various hospitals of the MUHC on the site of an old CP
rail yard
adjacent to the Vendôme
metro
station. This site, known as Glen Yards, comprises 170000 square metres (203,318.3 sq yd) and spans portions of Montreal's Notre-Dame-de-Grâce
neighbourhood and the city of Westmount
. The Glen Yards project has been controversial due to local opposition to the project, environmental issues, and the cost of the project itself. The project, which has received approval from the provincial government, was, in 2003, expected to be complete by 2010. The new 'campus' is now expected to open in 2014 or 2015.
A second campus, the Macdonald Campus
, in Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue
houses the Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Science, the School of Dietetics and Human Nutrition, the Institute of Parasitology, and the McGill School of Environment. The Morgan Arboretum
and the J. S. Marshall Radar Observatory are nearby.
The Morgan Arboretum
was created in 1945. It is a 2.5 square kilometre (0.965255396481338 sq mi) forested reserve with the aim of 'teaching, research, and public education'. Its mandated research goals are to continue research related to maintaining the health of the Arboretum plantations and woodland
s, to develop new programs related to selecting species
adapted
to developing environmental conditions and to develop silvicultural practices that preserve and enhance biological diversity
in both natural stands and plantations.
, located in St. James, Barbados 13°10′N 59°35′W, is Canada's only teaching and research facility in the tropics. The institute has been in use for over 50 years. Its facilities are regularly utilized by the Canadian Space Agency for research.
The laboratories of the Huntsman Marine Science Centre
are located in St. Andrews, N.B.
, on 300000 square metres (358,797 sq yd) of land at the estuary
of the St. Croix River
. It hosts the Atlantic Reference Centre, which is known throughout the Maritimes
for its extensive marine biology collections. The HMS is a research facility "committed to the advancement of the marine sciences through basic and applied research" and acts as a field facility for research and teaching by McGill and other member universities.
McGill's Gault Nature Reserve
45°32′N 73°10′W spans over 10 square kilometres (3.9 sq mi) of forest land, the largest remaining remnant of the primeval forests
of the St. Lawrence River Valley
. The first scientific studies at the site occurred in 1859. The site has been the site of extensive research activities:
"Today there are over 400 scientific articles, 100 graduate theses, more than 50 government reports and about 30 book chapters that are based on research at Mont St. Hilaire
."
In addition to McGill's own Health Centre, McGill has been directly partnered with five separate teaching hospital
s for decades, and also has a history of collaborating with many hospitals in Montreal. These cooperations allow the university to graduate over 1,000 students in health care
each year. McGill's contract-affiliated teaching hospitals include: Montreal Children's Hospital
, Montreal General Hospital
, Montreal Neurological Hospital, Montreal Chest Institute
and Royal Victoria Hospital. Other hospitals that health care students may use include: Sir Mortimer B. Davis – Jewish General Hospital
, Douglas Hospital
and St. Mary's Hospital Center.
The McGill coat of arms
is derived from an armorial device assumed during his lifetime by the founder of the University, James McGill. The University's patent of arms was granted by England's Garter-King-at-Arms in 1922 and registered in 1956 with Lord Lyon King of Arms in Edinburgh and in 1992 with the Public Register of Arms, Flags and Badges of Canada. In heraldic terms, the coat of arms is described as follows: "Argent three Martlets Gules, on a chief dancette of the second, an open book proper garnished or bearing the legend In Domino Confido in letters Sable between two crowns of the first. Motto: Grandescunt Aucta Labore." The coat of arms consists of two parts, the shield and the scroll. The University publishes a guide to the use of the University's arms and motto.
The university's symbol is the martlet
, stemming from the presence of the mythical bird on the official arms
of the university. The school's official colours are red and white. McGill's motto is Grandescunt Aucta Labore, Latin for "By work, all things increase and grow."
The official school song
is entitled "Hail, Alma Mater
."
universities in Quebec; fluency in French is not a requirement to attend. The Faculty of Law does, however, require all students to be "passively bilingual", meaning that all students must be able to understand written and spoken French—or English if the student is francophone—since English or French may be used at any time in a course. Since 1964, students in all faculties have been able to write exams and papers in either English or French, provided that the objective of the class is not to learn a particular language.
The 1960s represented an era of large nationalist and labour mobilizations in Quebec. At the time, English was seen as the privileged language of commerce. McGill, where francophone
s comprised only three percent of the student population, was seen by some as a bastion of anglophone privilege in a predominantly French-speaking city.
The McGill français movement began in 1969, clamouring for a new McGill that would be francophone, pro-nationalist, and pro-worker. The movement was led by Stanley Gray, a political science
professor
. It was argued that, since McGill received the lion's share of government funding, paid by a taxpayer base that was largely francophone, the university should equally be accessible to that segment of the population. Gray led a demonstration of 10,000 trade unionists, leftist activists, CEGEP students, and even some McGill students, at the university's Roddick Gates
on March 28, 1969. Protesters shouted "McGill français", "McGill aux Québécois", and "McGill aux travailleurs" (McGill for workers). However, the majority of students and faculty opposed such a position, and many of the protesters were arrested. The McGill français protest was, at the time, the second-largest protest in the history of Montreal. Francophone students, whether they're from inside the province or are international, now make up approximately 18 percent of the student body, a goal set by the administration partially in the wake of the movement.
The campus has an active students' union
represented by the undergraduate Students' Society of McGill University
(SSMU) and the Post-Graduate Students' Society of McGill University (PGSS). Due to the large postdoctoral population, the PGSS also contains a semi-autonomous Association of Postdoctoral Fellows (APF). In addition, each faculty has its own student governing body. There are hundreds of clubs and student organizations at the university. Many of them are centred around McGill's student union building, the University Centre. In 1992, students held a referendum
which called for the University Centre to be named for actor and McGill alumnus William Shatner
. The university administration refused to accept the name and did not attend the opening. Traditionally, the administration names buildings in honour of deceased members of the university community or for major benefactors—Shatner is neither.
McGill has two English-language student-run newspapers: the McGill Daily and the McGill Tribune
, both of which are financially independent
publications. The McGill Daily was first published in 1911. The Daily is currently is published twice weekly. The Délit français is the Daily's French-language counterpart. The combined circulation of both papers is over 28,000. The McGill Foreign Affairs Review is a student-run journal about international affairs. Since 1988, The Red Herring has been the main satire magazine of Mcgill University. CKUT (90.3 FM) is the campus radio station. TVMcGill
is the University TV station, broadcasting on closed-circuit television and over the internet. The McGill University Faculty of Law
is also home to three student-run academic journals, including the world renowned McGill Law Journal
, founded in 1952.
While fraternities and sororities are not a large part of student life at McGill, some, including fraternities Alpha Delta Phi
, Sigma Chi
, Alpha Epsilon Pi
, Delta Upsilon
, and Zeta Psi
, and sororities Gamma Phi Beta
, Kappa Kappa Gamma
, Kappa Alpha Theta
, and Alpha Omicron Pi
, have been established for many years at the university. Phi Kappa Pi, Canada's only national fraternity, was founded at McGill and the University of Toronto in 1913 and continues to be active to this day. Events including Greek
week, held annually during the first week of February, have been established to promote Greek life on campus.
With just over 2% of the student body population participating, involvement is well below that of most American universities, but on par with most Canadian schools.
McGill has had a student club supporting lesbian
, bisexual, gay
, and transgender
students since 1972. The group, originally named "Gay McGill", was renamed "Queer McGill" in 1998 to better identify with the diversity of its members. Queer McGill supports both students and non-student members of the McGill community. Membership in 2002 was over 400.
The three oldest a cappella groups on campus are Tonal Ecstasy, Effusion and Soulstice. These groups perform multiple times during the year at on- and off-campus events.
Student organizations at McGill are internationally recognized in a variety of ways. Many larger organizations and NGOs
have a local presence on campus. The International Relations Students Association of McGill (IRSAM) currently has consultative status with the UN's Economic and Social Council
(ECOSOC) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Since 1990, IRSAM has hosted an annual Model United Nations
, McMUN, for university students and since 1993 it has hosted an annual Model United Nations
, SSUNS, for high school students.
Numerous other humanitarian groups can be found: UNICEF McGill, Oxfam
McGill, End Poverty Now
, Right to Play
McGill, and Free the Children
are just a few. Numerous student interest groups enhance university life while representing a variety of interests and perspectives.
(CIS) by the McGill Redmen
(men's) and the McGill Martlets
(women's). Following a major restructuring of the varsity programme for the fall semester of 2010, McGill is currently home to 29 varsity teams. McGill's unique mascot, Marty the Martlet
, was introduced during the 2005 Homecoming game,
The downtown McGill campus sport and exercise facilities include: the McGill Sports Centre (which includes the Tomlinson Fieldhouse and the Windsor Varsity Clinic), Molson Stadium, Memorial Pool, Tomlinson Hall, McConnell Arena, Forbes Field, many outdoor tennis courts and other extra-curricular arena
s and faculties. The Macdonald Campus facilities, include an arena, a gym
nasium, a pool
, tennis courts, fitness centres and hundreds of acres of green space for regular use. The university's largest sporting venue, Molson Stadium, was constructed in 1914. Following an expansion project completed in 2010, it now seats just over 25,000, and is the current home field of the Montreal Alouettes.
, hockey
, rugby
and basketball
are all related to McGill in some way. Even the introduction of cross-country skiing
has a McGill connection.
The first game of North American football was played between McGill and Harvard
on May 14, 1874, leading to the spread of American football throughout the Ivy League. One of the world's first organized hockey clubs, made up of McGill students, played their first game on January 31, 1877. Very soon thereafter, those McGill students wrote the first hockey rule book.In 1868, the first recorded game of rugby in North America occurred in Montreal, between British army officers and McGill students , giving McGill the oldest university-affiliated rugby club in North America. McGill alumnus James Naismith
invented basketball in early December 1891. Norwegian Herman "Jackrabbit" Smith-Johannsen
popularized cross-country skiing in North America from McGill's Gault Estate in Mont St. Hilaire. Johannsen also helped coach Canada's 1932 Olympic team.
There has been a McGill alumnus or alumna competing at every Olympic Games
since 1908. Swimmer George Hodgson
won two gold medals at the 1912 Summer Olympics
, ice hockey goaltender Kim St-Pierre
won gold medals at the 2002 Winter Olympics
and at the 2006 Winter Olympics
. Other 2006 gold medalists are Jennifer Heil
(women's freestyle mogul) and goaltender Charline Labonté
(women's ice hockey).
In 1996, the McGill Sports Hall of Fame
was established to honour its best student athletes. Notable members of the Hall of Fame include James Naismith
and Sydney Pierce
.
A 2005 hazing
scandal forced the cancellation of the final two games in the McGill Redmen football season. In 2006, McGill's Senate approved a proposed anti-hazing policy to define forbidden initiation practices.
Notable among a number of songs commonly played and sung at various events such as commencement
and convocation
, and athletic games are:
in Kingston
, Ontario
. Animosity between rowing athletes at the two schools has inspired an annual boat race between the two universities in the spring of each year since 1997, inspired by the famous Oxford-Cambridge Boat Race
. The football rivalry, which started in 1884, ended after Canadian university athletic divisions were re-organized in 2000; the Ontario-Quebec Intercollegiate Football Conference was divided into Ontario University Athletics
and Quebec Student Sports Federation
. The rivalry returned in 2002 when it transferred to the annual home-and-home hockey games between the two institutions. Queen's students refer to these matches as "Kill McGill" games, and usually show up in Montreal in atypically large numbers to cheer on the Queen's Golden Gaels
hockey team. In 2007, McGill students arrived in bus-loads to cheer on the McGill Redmen
, occupying a third of Queen's Jock Harty Arena.
The school also competes in the annual "Old Four (IV)
" soccer tournament, with Queen's University
, the University of Toronto
and the University of Western Ontario
.
McGill and Harvard also maintain their historical rivalry, represented by the biennial Harvard-McGill rugby games, alternately played in Montreal and Cambridge, MA. McGill is often regarded as being Canada's Harvard. This can also be seen when McGill is mentioned as "The Harvard of Canada" by Marge in The Simpsons
, to which Lisa rebuffs. In addition, a popular student t-shirt sold at McGill spoofs this by displaying "Harvard - America's McGill".
in the movie Lives Of the Bengal Lancers
(1935), and Major Donald Craig, a Canadian commando serving with British special forces during World War II, portrayed by Rock Hudson
in the 1967 war movie Tobruk
(though the film was loosely based on real events, it is not clear whether or not Hudson's character was based on a real person: most likely he was a pastiche
character, given a Canadian background as cover for Hudson's inability to emulate a British accent). In the Fox Network television drama House
, James Wilson
, an oncologist at the Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital is also a McGill alumnus. Walter Langkowski
, a researcher from the Marvel Comics Canadian superhero series Alpha Flight
, is portrayed as a McGill-based biophysicist
researching the gamma radiation
accident which created the Hulk
. Langkowski's discoveries transformed him into the superhero
known as Sasquatch
. McGill is also referenced in several of Kathy Reichs
' Temperance Brennan novels.
In an open letter to faculty and students, Heather Munroe-Blum wrote:
"The next few years do not promise to be easy. But in facing this challenge, McGill has a unique advantage in addition to that of the fundamental progress we have made. This university has lived with restricted resources and uncertainty for almost two hundred years – it is part of our culture. And yet, against this backdrop of hardship, we have always retained our commitment to excellence. We are one of the world’s great universities. This will not change. In my installation speech in the spring of 2003, I said McGill “punches above its weight.” We will continue to do so. In order to stay the course, we must now move with confidence, pride, excitement and discipline to seize every opportunity to put McGill in an ideal position to leap forward with the inevitable recovery."
Support to McGill’s annual fund has actually increased during the market crisis. According to Principal Heather Munroe-Blum, she is confident that Campaign McGill will reach its $750 million goal by 2012.
vary significantly between in-province
, out-of-province, and international students, with full-time Quebec students paying around $2,167.80 per year, Canadian students from other provinces paying around $5,858.10 per year, and international
students paying $14,461.80–$24,840 per year. Students must also pay housing costs, though Montreal has some of the least expensive housing among large North American cities.
Since 1996, McGill, in accordance with the Ministère de l'Éducation, du Loisir et du Sport (MELS), has had eight categories that qualifies certain international students to be excused from paying international fees. These categories include: students from France, a quota of students from select countries which have agreements with MELS, which include Algeria
, China, and Morocco
, students holding diplomatic status, including their dependents, and students enrolled in certain language programs leading to a degree in French.
For renewal of previously earned scholarships, students generally need to be within the top 10% of their faculty. For in-course scholarships in particular, students must be within the top 5% of their faculty. McGill itself outlines scholarship considerations as follows: "Competition for basic and major scholarships is intense at McGill. An extraordinary number of exceptional applications are received each year and therefore we cannot award scholarships to all good candidates."
The university has joined Project Hero, a scholarship program cofounded by General (Ret'd) Rick Hillier
for the families of fallen Canadian Forces
members.
.jpg)
In the arts, McGill students include three Pulitzer Prize
winners, Templeton Prize
winner Charles Taylor
, essayist and novelist John Ralston Saul
, a Companion of the Order of Canada along with Charles Taylor, Juno Award
winner Sam Roberts
, Singer-Songwriter Prita Chhabra and William Shatner
, best known for his portrayal of Captain Kirk
on Star Trek
and winner of several Emmy Awards. Nine Academy Award winners studied at McGill. Billboard
charting musician and vocalist Mary Fahl
also attended McGill University.
In the sciences, students include doctors, inventors, three astronauts and scientist Dr. Mark J. Poznansky, a member of the Order of Canada. On October 16, 2009, the 42nd American president, Bill Clinton accepted an Honorary Doctorate from McGill University.
Some politicians and government officials both within Canada and abroad are McGill alumni, including two Canadian prime ministers
and eleven justices of the Supreme Court of Canada
. PC MP Robert Layton
and Leader of NDP party, Jack Layton (son of Robert) also attended McGill. Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga
completed her Ph.D. at McGill and was elected as president of the Republic of Latvia in 1999 as the first female president in Eastern Europe after Turkey's Tansu Çiller
. Ahmed Nazif
also completed a Ph.D. at McGill in 1983 and has served as the youngest prime minister
of Egypt
since the republic's founding 1953. In the 2011 Canadian election, five McGill students—undergraduates Charmaine Borg
, Matthew Dubé, Mylène Freeman
(graduating shortly after the election) and Laurin Liu plus graduate student Jamie Nicholls—were elected as NDP MPs.
Corporate leaders and media personalities have also studied at McGill. Leading Canadian philanthropist and entrepreneur Seymour Schulich
donated $20 million, the highest donation to any music school in Canada, to the newly-named Schulich School of Music
. Henry Mintzberg
, a professor at McGill's Desautels Faculty of Management
is an acclaimed management thinker and contributes to The New York Times
and The Economist
. Mintzberg is an Officer of the Order of Canada. Co-founder and president of Matrox Electronic Systems Ltd.
, which innovates globally in graphics, video editing, and image processing, Lorne Trottier
has donated $10 million towards services in information and technology at McGill. The new engineering building is called Trottier, named after Lorne Trottier. Conrad Black
, a major media magnate and convicted fraudster, also studied at McGill.
McGill students are also recognized as athletes, including various members of Canadian national teams and twenty-eight Olympic
medalists. Since the Olympics began, McGill has produced 112 Olympians who have won a total of eight gold medals, nine silver, and eleven bronze.
Jacob Viner
, who would later go on to form the beginnings of the modern day Chicago School of Economics, earned his undergraduate degree from McGill. William Osler
, one of the founders of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
, and the originator of the concept of medical residency
, received his medical degree from McGill.
Professors at McGill have won 26 Prix du Québec
, 14 Prix de l'Association francophone pour le savoir
and 21 Killam Prizes
. Eleven Nobel Laureates have studied or taught at McGill.
Since 1902, Canadian undergraduate students have been eligible for Rhodes Scholarships to study at the University of Oxford
. More than any other university, McGill students have won 132 Rhodes Scholarships. These students include parliamentary and cabinet ministers David Lewis
(1932), Alastair Gillespie
(1947), and Marcel Massé
(1963), the political philosopher Charles Taylor
(1952), and the U.S. political advisor and inventor Jack Phillips (1978).
Departments and publications
Public university
A public university is a university that is predominantly funded by public means through a national or subnational government, as opposed to private universities. A national university may or may not be considered a public university, depending on regions...
research university located in Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
, Quebec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
. The university bears the name of James McGill
James McGill
James McGill was a Scottish-Canadian businessman, military commander and philanthropist known for being the founder of McGill University...
, a prominent Montreal merchant from Glasgow
Glasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
, Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
, whose bequest formed the beginning of the university. Founded in 1821, McGill was chartered during the British colonial era
Canada under British Imperial Control (1764-1867)
Territories, colonies and provinces that would become part of modern Canada were under control of the English, and later British, Empire from the sixteenth century, when France also had claims in the area. However, the most populous areas of Canada in the St...
, 46 years before the Canadian Confederation
Canadian Confederation
Canadian Confederation was the process by which the federal Dominion of Canada was formed on July 1, 1867. On that day, three British colonies were formed into four Canadian provinces...
, making it one of the oldest universities in Canada.
In the Maclean's
Maclean's
Maclean's is a Canadian weekly news magazine, reporting on Canadian issues such as politics, pop culture, and current events.-History:Founded in 1905 by Toronto journalist/entrepreneur Lt.-Col. John Bayne Maclean, a 43-year-old trade magazine publisher who purchased an advertising agency's in-house...
21st Annual University Ranking (2011), McGill was ranked dead last in Canada among all institutions offering medical and doctoral degrees, maintaining this ranking for the seventh year in a row. As of 2011, McGill ranked 1st in Canada and 17th in the world in the QS World University Rankings
QS World University Rankings
The QS World University Rankings is a ranking of the world’s top 500 universities by Quacquarelli Symonds using a method that has published annually since 2004....
.
With almost 215,000 living alumni worldwide, students and professors at McGill have been recognized in fields ranging from the arts and sciences, to business, politics, and sports. Notable alumni include eleven Nobel Laureates, one hundred and thirty-two Rhodes Scholars, three astronauts, two Canadian prime ministers, eleven justices of the Canadian Supreme Court
Supreme Court of Canada
The Supreme Court of Canada is the highest court of Canada and is the final court of appeals in the Canadian justice system. The court grants permission to between 40 and 75 litigants each year to appeal decisions rendered by provincial, territorial and federal appellate courts, and its decisions...
, three foreign leaders
Leader
A leader is one who influences or leads others.Leader may also refer to:- Newspapers :* Leading article, a piece of writing intended to promote an opinion, also called an editorial* The Leader , published 1909–1967...
, nine Academy Award winners, three Pulitzer Prize
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...
winners, and twenty-eight Olympic
Olympic Games
The Olympic Games is a major international event featuring summer and winter sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The Olympic Games have come to be regarded as the world’s foremost sports competition where more than 200 nations participate...
medalists.
The main campus is set upon 32 hectares (79.1 acre) at the foot of Mount Royal
Mount Royal
Mount Royal is a mountain in the city of Montreal, immediately west of downtown Montreal, Quebec, Canada, the city to which it gave its name.The mountain is part of the Monteregian Hills situated between the Laurentians and the Appalachians...
in Downtown Montreal
Downtown Montreal
Downtown Montreal is the central business district of Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is nearly enitirely located at the southern most slope of Mount Royal and is approximately bounded by Sherbrooke Street to the north, Papineau Avenue to the east, Guy Street or until Shaughnessy Village to the west,...
. A second campus, the Macdonald Campus
Macdonald Campus
The Macdonald Campus of McGill University houses its Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, School of Dietetics and Human Nutrition, and the McGill School of Environment.- History :...
, is situated on 6.5 square kilometres (2.5 sq mi)) of fields and forested land in Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue
Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue, Quebec
Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue is a town located at the western tip of the Island of Montreal in southwestern Quebec, Canada. It is the second oldest community in Montreal's West Island, having been founded as a parish in 1703...
, 30 km (18.6 mi) west of the downtown campus. With 21 faculties
Faculty (university)
A faculty is a division within a university comprising one subject area, or a number of related subject areas...
and professional schools, McGill offers degrees and diplomas in over 300 fields of study, including medicine and law. Although the language of instruction is English
Canadian English
Canadian English is the variety of English spoken in Canada. English is the first language, or "mother tongue", of approximately 24 million Canadians , and more than 28 million are fluent in the language...
, students have the right to submit any graded work in English or in French, except when learning a particular language is an objective of the course. Approximately 34,000 students attend McGill, with international students comprising one-fifth of the student population.
Royal Institution for the Advancement of Learning
The creation of the Royal Institution for the Advancement of Learning (RIAL) in 1801, and its formation of two new Royal Grammar Schools in 1816, acted as turning points for Canada in two particular ways. First, the schools "were created by legislation, the District Public Schools Act of 1807, and they showed the government's willingness to support the costs of education and even the salary of a schoolmaster. Second, the law involved the state in education, an important first step in the creation of nondenominational schools." The original two schools closed in 1846; by the mid-19th century the RIAL lost control of the other 82 grammar schools it had administered. Its sole remaining purpose was to administer the McGill bequests on behalf of the college. McGill College continued to grow, now having the sole aim of providing post-secondary educationHigher education
Higher, post-secondary, tertiary, or third level education refers to the stage of learning that occurs at universities, academies, colleges, seminaries, and institutes of technology...
. The RIAL continues to exist today; it is the corporate identity
Corporate identity
In Corporate Communications, a corporate identity is the "persona" of a corporation which is designed to accord with and facilitate the attainment of business objectives...
that runs the university and its various constituent bodies, including the former Macdonald College (now Macdonald Campus), the Montreal Neurological Institute
Montreal Neurological Institute
The Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital is an academic medical centre dedicated to neuroscience research, training and clinical care. The Institute is part of McGill University and the Hospital is one of the five teaching hospitals of the McGill University Health Centre, in Montreal,...
and the Royal Victoria College (the former women's college turned residence). Since the revised Royal Charter of 1852, The Trustees of the RIAL comprise the Board of Governors of McGill University.
One of Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll
Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll
The Princess Louise was a member of the British Royal Family, the sixth child and fourth daughter of Queen Victoria and her husband, Albert, Prince Consort.Louise's early life was spent moving between the various royal residences in the...
`s works as a sculptor is the statue of her Royal mother Queen Victoria erected in front of the Royal Victoria College, Montreal.
McGill College
James McGill
James McGill was a Scottish-Canadian businessman, military commander and philanthropist known for being the founder of McGill University...
, born in Glasgow
Glasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
, Scotland on 6 October 1744, was a successful English and French-speaking
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
merchant in Quebec, having matriculated into Glasgow University
University of Glasgow
The University of Glasgow is the fourth-oldest university in the English-speaking world and one of Scotland's four ancient universities. Located in Glasgow, the university was founded in 1451 and is presently one of seventeen British higher education institutions ranked amongst the top 100 of the...
in 1756. Between 1811 and 1813
he drew up a will leaving his Burnside estate, a
19 hectares (46.9 acre) tract of rural
Rural
Rural areas or the country or countryside are areas that are not urbanized, though when large areas are described, country towns and smaller cities will be included. They have a low population density, and typically much of the land is devoted to agriculture...
land and 10,000 pounds
Pound sterling
The pound sterling , commonly called the pound, is the official currency of the United Kingdom, its Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, British Antarctic Territory and Tristan da Cunha. It is subdivided into 100 pence...
to the Royal Institution for the Advancement of Learning.
Upon McGill's death in December 1813 the Royal Institution for the Advancement of Learning, established in 1801 by an Act of the Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada
Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada
The Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada was the lower house of the bicameral structure of provincial government in Lower Canada until 1838. The legislative assembly was created by the Constitutional Act of 1791...
, added the establishing of a University pursuant to the conditions of McGill's will to its original function of administering elementary education in Lower Canada
Lower Canada
The Province of Lower Canada was a British colony on the lower Saint Lawrence River and the shores of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence...
. As a condition of the bequest, the land and funds had to be used for the establishment of a "University or College, for the purposes of Education and the Advancement of Learning in the said Province." The will specified that the college would be required to bear his name and must be established within 10 years of his death; otherwise the bequest would revert to the heirs of his wife.
On March 31, 1821, after protracted legal battles with the Desrivieres family (the heirs of his wife), McGill College received a royal charter
Royal Charter
A royal charter is a formal document issued by a monarch as letters patent, granting a right or power to an individual or a body corporate. They were, and are still, used to establish significant organizations such as cities or universities. Charters should be distinguished from warrants and...
from King George IV
George IV of the United Kingdom
George IV was the King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and also of Hanover from the death of his father, George III, on 29 January 1820 until his own death ten years later...
. The Charter provided that the College should be deemed and taken as a University
University
A university is an institution of higher education and research, which grants academic degrees in a variety of subjects. A university is an organisation that provides both undergraduate education and postgraduate education...
, with the power of conferring degrees
Academic degree
An academic degree is a position and title within a college or university that is usually awarded in recognition of the recipient having either satisfactorily completed a prescribed course of study or having conducted a scholarly endeavour deemed worthy of his or her admission to the degree...
.
Early history
Despite having a royal charter, McGill College was inactive until 1829 when the Montreal Medical Institution, which had been founded in 1823, became the college's first academic unit and Canada's first medical school. The Faculty of Medicine granted its first degree, a Doctor of Medicine and Surgery, in 1833; this was also the first medical degree to be awarded in Canada. The Faculty of Medicine remained the school's only functioning faculty until 1843 when the Faculty of Arts commenced teaching in the newly constructed Arts Building and East Wing (Dawson Hall). The university also historically has strong linkage with the The Canadian Grenadier GuardsThe Canadian Grenadier Guards
The Canadian Grenadier Guards is the second most senior and oldest infantry regiment in the Reserve Force of the Canadian Forces. Located in Montreal, its primary role is the provision of combat-ready troops in support of Canadian regular infantry...
, a military regiment in which James McGill served as the Lieutenant-Colonel. This title is marked upon the stone that stands before the Arts building, from where the Guards step off annually to commemorate Remembrance Day.
Later development
John William Dawson
Sir John William Dawson, CMG, FRS, FRSC , was a Canadian geologist and university administrator.- Life and work :...
, McGill's principal from 1855 to 1893, is often credited with transforming the school into a modern university. He recruited the aid of Montreal's wealthiest citizens (eighty percent of Canada's wealth was then controlled by families who lived within the "Golden Mile" area that surrounded the university), many of whom donated property and funding needed to construct the campus buildings. Their names adorn many of the campus's prominent buildings. William Spier (architect) designed the
addition of West Wing of the Arts Building for William Molson, 1861 Alexander Francis Dunlop
Alexander Francis Dunlop
Alexander Francis Dunlop, was a Canadian architect from Montreal, Quebec.-Biography:Alexander Francis Dunlop worked as an apprentice to Montreal architects George Browne and John James Browne. From 1871 to 1874 he lived and worked in Detroit, Michigan. He opened his own architectural firm in...
designed major alterations to the East Wing of McGill College (now called the Arts Building, MCGill University) for Prof. Bovey and the Science Dept., 1888. This expansion of the campus continued until 1920. Buildings designed by Andrew Taylor (Architect)
Andrew Taylor (architect)
Sir Andrew Thomas Taylor J.P., R.C.A., F.S.A., F.R.I.B.A. was a British architect and Conservative Party municipal councillor. He was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, and practised architecture in Scotland and London before immigrating to Montreal, Quebec, in 1883, where he designed many of the...
, include the Redpath Museum
Redpath Museum
The Redpath Museum is a museum of natural history belonging to McGill University and located on the university's campus at 859 Sherbrooke Street West in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It was built in 1882 as a gift from the sugar baron Peter Redpath. It houses collections of interest to ethnology,...
(1880), Macdonald Physics Building (1893), the Redpath Library (1893), the Macdonald Chemistry Building (1896), the Macdonald Engineering Building (1907), and the Strathcona Medical Building (1907)—since renamed the Strathcona Anatomy and Dentistry Building.
In 1885, the university's Board of Governors formally adopted the use of the name McGill University. The Faculty of Law was founded in 1848, making it Canada's oldest. The school of architecture at McGill University was founded in 1896.
Women's education at McGill began in 1884, when Donald Smith
Donald Smith, 1st Baron Strathcona and Mount Royal
Sir Donald Alexander Smith, 1st Baron Strathcona and Mount Royal, GCMG, GCVO, PC, DL was a Scottish-born Canadian fur trader, financier, railroad baron and politician.-Early life:...
, also known as Lord Strathcona, began funding separate lectures for women, given by university staff members. The first degrees granted to women at McGill were conferred in 1888. In 1899, the Royal Victoria College (RVC) opened as a residential college for women at McGill. Until the 1970s, all female undergraduate students, known as "Donaldas," were considered to be members of RVC. Beginning in the autumn of 2010, the newer Tower section of Royal Victoria College is a co-ed dormitory, whereas the older West Wing remains strictly for women. Both the Tower and the West Wing of Royal Victoria College form part of the university's residence system.
In 1900, the university established the MacLennan Travelling Library. McGill University waltz composed by Frances C. Robinson, was published in Montréal by W.H. Scroggie, c 1904.
In 1905, the university acquired a second campus when Sir William C. Macdonald
William Christopher Macdonald
Sir William Christopher Macdonald was a Scots-Quebecer tobacco manufacturer and major education philanthropist in Canada.-Early life and career:...
, one of the university's major benefactors, endowed a college in Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue, 32 kilometres west of Montreal. Macdonald College, now known as the Macdonald Campus
Macdonald Campus
The Macdonald Campus of McGill University houses its Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, School of Dietetics and Human Nutrition, and the McGill School of Environment.- History :...
, opened to students in 1907, originally offering programs in agriculture, household science, and teaching.
McGill established the first post-secondary institutions in British Columbia
British Columbia
British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...
to provide degree programs to the growing cities of Vancouver
Vancouver
Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...
and Victoria
Victoria, British Columbia
Victoria is the capital city of British Columbia, Canada and is located on the southern tip of Vancouver Island off Canada's Pacific coast. The city has a population of about 78,000 within the metropolitan area of Greater Victoria, which has a population of 360,063, the 15th most populous Canadian...
. It created Victoria College
Victoria College, British Columbia
Victoria College was a two-year college in Victoria, British Columbia founded in 1903 with sponsorship from McGill University. It was one of the first post-secondary institutions in British Columbia...
in 1903, a two-year college offering first and second-year McGill courses in arts and science, which was the predecessor institution to the modern University of Victoria
University of Victoria
The University of Victoria, often referred to as UVic, is the second oldest public research university in British Columbia, Canada. It is a research intensive university located in Saanich and Oak Bay, about northeast of downtown Victoria. The University's annual enrollment is about 20,000 students...
. The province's first university was incorporated in Vancouver in 1908 as the McGill University College of British Columbia. The private institution granted McGill degrees until it became the independent University of British Columbia
University of British Columbia
The University of British Columbia is a public research university. UBC’s two main campuses are situated in Vancouver and in Kelowna in the Okanagan Valley...
in 1915.
George Allan Ross (architect) designed the Pathological Building, 1922-23; the Neurological Institute, 1933; Neurological Institute addition 1938 at McGill University. Jean Julien Perrault (architect) designed the McTavish Street residence for Charles E. Gravel, which is now called David Thompson House (1934).
The War Memorial Hall (more generally known as Memorial Hall) is a landmark building on the campus of McGill University. At the dedication ceremony the Governor General of Canada (Viscount of Tunis) laid the cornerstone. Dedicated on October 6, 1946, the Memorial Hall and adjoining Memorial Pool honour students who had enlisted and died in the First World War, and in the Second World War. In Memorial Hall, there are two Stained Glass Regimental badge World War I and World War II Memorial Windows by Charles William Kelsey
Charles William Kelsey
Charles William Kelsey was a Canadian artist best known for his stained glass work. He was born in 1877 in England.He trained in England. He emigrated to Montreal, Quebec in 1922...
c. 1950/1. A war memorial window (1950) by Charles William Kelsey
Charles William Kelsey
Charles William Kelsey was a Canadian artist best known for his stained glass work. He was born in 1877 in England.He trained in England. He emigrated to Montreal, Quebec in 1922...
in the McGill War Memorial Hall depicts the figure of St. Michael and the badges of the Navy, Army and the Air Force. Six other windows (1951) by Charles William Kelsey
Charles William Kelsey
Charles William Kelsey was a Canadian artist best known for his stained glass work. He was born in 1877 in England.He trained in England. He emigrated to Montreal, Quebec in 1922...
on the west wall of the memorial hall depict the coats of arms of the regiments in which the McGill alumni were members.
There is a memorial archway at Macdonald College, two additional floors added to the existing Sir Arthur Currie
Arthur Currie
Sir Arthur William Currie GCMG, KCB , was a Canadian general during World War I. He had the unique distinction of starting his military career on the very bottom rung as a pre-war militia gunner before rising through the ranks to become the first Canadian commander of the four divisions of the...
gymnasium, a hockey rink and funding for an annual Memorial Assembly. A Book of Remembrance on a marble table contains the names of those lost in both World Wars.
The National Film Board of Canada
National Film Board of Canada
The National Film Board of Canada is Canada's twelve-time Academy Award-winning public film producer and distributor. An agency of the Government of Canada, the NFB produces and distributes documentary, animation, alternative drama and digital media productions...
documentary `Occupation` (1970), directed by Bill Reid, documents the occupation of the offices of the Political Science Department at McGill University in 1970 by striking political science students.` On November 10th, 2011, the Montreal riot police entered McGill University's campus, the first time since March of 1969, after a city-wide student protest against increases in tuition fees that ended in a student occupation of the McGill Principal's office and James Administration Building. As a result, hundreds of protesters, and at least one faculty member, were clubbed, pepper-sprayed, and tear-gassed Five days later, there was an open rally at McGill regarding the events of November 10th. The event was attended by nearly 1,000 students and staff who were virtually unanimous in their denunciation of the McGill administration, headed by Munroe-Blum, and their handling of the November 10th protest and occupation
Students
McGill's full- and part-time student population includes 25,267 undergraduate and 8,301 graduate students, representing a diverse geographic and linguistic background. Of the entire student population, 54.7% are from Quebec and 25.4% are from the rest of Canada, while 20.0% are from outside of Canada (including the United States). International students hail from about 150 different countries, though many of them are from the United States, with Americans comprising about half of all international undergraduates and a third of all international graduates in the entering class of 2010. In recent years, a growing number of American students are attending McGill: many are attracted to the culture and dynamism of Montreal, the university's reputation, and the relatively low tuition costs in comparison to many top public and private universities in the United States. While the university is located in a Francophone province, only 17.8% of the students claim French as their mother tongue, compared to 51.8% who claim English and 30.5% who claim some other language.Faculties and schools
In the 2007–2008 school year, McGill offered over 340 academic programs in eleven faculties. The university also offers over 250 doctoral and master's graduate degree programs. Despite strong increases in university enrolment across North America, McGill has upheld a relatively low and appealing student-faculty ratio of 16:1. There are nearly 1,600 tenureTenure
Tenure commonly refers to life tenure in a job and specifically to a senior academic's contractual right not to have his or her position terminated without just cause.-19th century:...
d or tenure-track professors and 4,300 adjunct and visiting professors teaching at the university.
22% of all students are enrolled in the Faculty of Arts
McGill University Faculty of Arts
The Faculty of Arts is one of the constituent faculties of McGill University. It is the university's largest faculty. Established in 1843, it has over 250 tenured or tenure-track professors, over 6,000 undergraduate students, and over 1,000 graduate students...
, McGill's largest academic unit. Of the other larger faculties, the Faculty of Science
McGill University Faculty of Science
The Faculty of Science is one of the constituent faculties of McGill University. It is the university's second largest faculty with 16% of McGill students enrolled in one of its various departments....
enrolls 15%, the Faculty of Medicine
McGill University Faculty of Medicine
The Faculty of Medicine is one of the constituent faculties of McGill University. It was established in 1823 as the Montreal Medical Institution, and became the first faculty of McGill College in 1829; it was the first medical faculty to be established in Canada....
enrolls 13%, the Centre for Continuing Education enrolls 12%, the Faculty of Engineering
McGill University Faculty of Engineering
The Faculty of Engineering is one of the constituent faculties of the McGill University in Montréal, Quebec, Canada, offering undergraduate and graduate degrees in chemical, civil, computer, software, electrical, mechanical, metals and materials, and mining engineering, as well as architecture and...
and the Desautels Faculty of Management
Desautels Faculty of Management
The Desautels Faculty of Management is one of the constituent faculties of McGill University. The Faculty has been host to the McGill Management International Case Competition since 2001...
enroll about 10% each. The remainder of all students are enrolled in McGill's smaller schools, including the Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Dentistry
McGill University Faculty of Dentistry
The Faculty of Dentistry is a constituent faculty of McGill University. Founded in 1904 as the McGill Dental School, it was established as a department in the Faculty of Medicine until becoming its own faculty in 1920. The faculty is closely affiliated with the Montreal General Hospital.-External...
, Faculty of Education
McGill University Faculty of Education
The Faculty of Education is a constituent faculty of McGill University, offering undergraduate and graduate degrees in education.The faculty traces its beginnings to the McGill Normal School, established in 1857. In 1907, the school was moved to Macdonald College in Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue,...
, Faculty of Law
McGill University Faculty of Law
The Faculty of Law is a constituent faculty of McGill University, in Montreal, Quebec. Its graduates obtain both a Bachelor of Laws and Bachelor of Civil Law , concurrently, in three to four years, allowing them to practice in both the Canadian, U.S...
, Schulich School of Music
Schulich School of Music
The Schulich School of Music is one of the constituent faculties of McGill University in Montréal, Canada. The faculty was named after benefactor Seymour Schulich.-History:Music at McGill – The Beginning...
, and the Faculty of Religious Studies
McGill University Faculty of Religious Studies
The Faculty of Religious Studies is one of the constituent faculties of McGill University.-History:The faculty's history is rooted in the numerous theological colleges in Montreal that became affiliated with the university during the nineteenth century...
. Since the 1880s, McGill has been affiliated with three Theological Colleges
Seminary
A seminary, theological college, or divinity school is an institution of secondary or post-secondary education for educating students in theology, generally to prepare them for ordination as clergy or for other ministry...
; the Montreal Diocesan
Anglican Diocese of Montreal
The Diocese of Montreal is a diocese of the Ecclesiastical Province of Canada of the Anglican Church of Canada, in turn a province of the Anglican Communion. The diocese comprises the 21,400 square kilometres encompassing the City and Island of Montreal, the Laurentians, the South Shore opposite...
Theological College (Anglican Church of Canada
Anglican Church of Canada
The Anglican Church of Canada is the Province of the Anglican Communion in Canada. The official French name is l'Église Anglicane du Canada. The ACC is the third largest church in Canada after the Roman Catholic Church and the United Church of Canada, consisting of 800,000 registered members...
), The Presbyterian College, Montreal
The Presbyterian College, Montreal
The Presbyterian College/Le Collège Presbytérien, 3495 University Avenue, Montreal, Quebec, is a Theological College of the Presbyterian Church in Canada, and is affiliated with McGill University through their Faculty of Religious Studies...
(Presbyterian Church in Canada
Presbyterian Church in Canada
The Presbyterian Church in Canada is the name of a Protestant Christian church, of presbyterian and reformed theology and polity, serving in Canada under this name since 1875, although the United Church of Canada claimed the right to the name from 1925 to 1939...
), and United Theological College (United Church of Canada
United Church of Canada
The United Church of Canada is a Protestant Christian denomination in Canada. It is the largest Protestant church and, after the Roman Catholic Church, the second-largest Christian church in Canada...
). The university's Faculty of Religious Studies maintains additional affiliations with other theological institutions and organizations, such as the Montreal School of Theology.
Schools at the university include the School of Architecture, the School of Computer Science
McGill University School of Computer Science
The School of Computer Science is a School in the Faculty of Science at McGill University located in the McConnell Engineering Building at 3480 University, Montreal. The school is the second most funded computer science department in Canada. It currently has 34 faculty members, 60 Ph.D...
, the School of Dietetics and Human Nutrition, the School of Nursing, the School of Social Work, the School of Urban Planning, and the McGill School of Environment. They also include the Institute of Islamic Studies
McGill University Institute of Islamic Studies
The McGill University Institute of Islamic Studies and the Islamic Studies Library were established in 1952 by Wilfred Cantwell Smith, and since 1983 both have been housed in Morrice Hall on McGill's campus in downtown Montreal...
(established in 1952) which offers graduate courses leading to the M.A. and Ph.D. degrees, and covering the history, culture, and civilization of Islam since its inception and up to modern times; the Institute is also served by one of the richest libraries in North America on Islamic studies with sources in many languages.
The Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies Office (GPSO) oversees the admission and registration of graduate students (both master's and Ph.D.). GPSO administers graduate fellowships, postdoctoral affairs, and the graduation process, including the examination of theses. In conjunction with other units, it conducts regular program reviews in all disciplines.
Founded in 1956, the McGill Executive Institute
McGill Executive Institute
The McGill Executive Institute is the corporate education and management development unit of McGill University in Montreal, Canada. It provides a variety of public business seminars as well as custom executive education and coaching for all levels of management....
provides business seminars and custom executive education to companies, government services and non-profit organizations. Led primarily by McGill faculty, the executive courses and management training programs are designed for all managerial levels, from board members to senior-level executives to junior managers.
|
McGill University Faculty of Dentistry The Faculty of Dentistry is a constituent faculty of McGill University. Founded in 1904 as the McGill Dental School, it was established as a department in the Faculty of Medicine until becoming its own faculty in 1920. The faculty is closely affiliated with the Montreal General Hospital.-External... McGill University Faculty of Education The Faculty of Education is a constituent faculty of McGill University, offering undergraduate and graduate degrees in education.The faculty traces its beginnings to the McGill Normal School, established in 1857. In 1907, the school was moved to Macdonald College in Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue,... Macdonald Campus The Macdonald Campus of McGill University houses its Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, School of Dietetics and Human Nutrition, and the McGill School of Environment.- History :... McGill University Faculty of Religious Studies The Faculty of Religious Studies is one of the constituent faculties of McGill University.-History:The faculty's history is rooted in the numerous theological colleges in Montreal that became affiliated with the university during the nineteenth century... Desautels Faculty of Management The Desautels Faculty of Management is one of the constituent faculties of McGill University. The Faculty has been host to the McGill Management International Case Competition since 2001... |
Macdonald Campus The Macdonald Campus of McGill University houses its Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, School of Dietetics and Human Nutrition, and the McGill School of Environment.- History :... Macdonald Campus The Macdonald Campus of McGill University houses its Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, School of Dietetics and Human Nutrition, and the McGill School of Environment.- History :... |
Schulich School of Music The Schulich School of Music is one of the constituent faculties of McGill University in Montréal, Canada. The faculty was named after benefactor Seymour Schulich.-History:Music at McGill – The Beginning... |
Research
Research plays a critical role at McGill. According to the Association of Universities and Colleges of CanadaAssociation of Universities and Colleges of Canada
- See also :* G13 * Association of Commonwealth Universities...
, "Researchers at McGill are affiliated with about 75 major research centres and networks, and are engaged in an extensive array of research partnerships with other universities, government and industry in Quebec and Canada, throughout North America and in dozens of other countries." Annually, around 100 inventions take place at McGill. In recognition of its research quality, McGill is affiliated with 11 Nobel Laureates and professors have won major teaching prizes. McGill's researchers are supported by the McGill University Library
McGill University Library
McGill University Library is the library system of McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It comprises 13 branch libraries, located on the downtown Montreal and Macdonald campuses, holding over 6 million items...
, which comprises 13 branch libraries and holds over six million items.
Since 1926, McGill has been a member of the Association of American Universities
Association of American Universities
The Association of American Universities is an organization of leading research universities devoted to maintaining a strong system of academic research and education...
(AAU), an organization of research
Research
Research can be defined as the scientific search for knowledge, or as any systematic investigation, to establish novel facts, solve new or existing problems, prove new ideas, or develop new theories, usually using a scientific method...
-intensive universities in North America. McGill is also a founding member of Universitas 21
Universitas 21
Universitas 21 is an international network of universities, established as an "international reference point and resource for strategic thinking on issues of global significance." Together, there are 500,000 students and 40,000 academics and researchers associated with these universities, which...
, an international association of research-driven universities. McGill is a member of the G13, a group of prominent research universities within Canada. McGill-Queen's University Press
McGill-Queen's University Press
The McGill-Queen's University Press is a joint venture between McGill University in Montreal, Quebec and Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario....
began as McGill in 1963 and amalgamated with Queen's in 1969. McGill-Queen's University Press focuses on Canadian studies and publishes the Canadian Public Administration Series.
William Osler
Sir William Osler, 1st Baronet was a physician. He was one of the "Big Four" founding professors at Johns Hopkins Hospital as the first Professor of Medicine and founder of the Medical Service there. Sir William Osler, 1st Baronet (July 12, 1849 – December 29, 1919) was a physician. He was...
, Wilder Penfield
Wilder Penfield
Wilder Graves Penfield, OM, CC, CMG, FRS was an American born Canadian neurosurgeon. During his life he was called "the greatest living Canadian"...
, Donald Hebb
Donald Olding Hebb
Donald Olding Hebb FRS was a Canadian psychologist who was influential in the area of neuropsychology, where he sought to understand how the function of neurons contributed to psychological processes such as learning...
, Brenda Milner
Brenda Milner
Brenda Milner, is a Canadian neuroscientist who has contributed extensively to the research literature on various topics in the field of clinical neuropsychology. -Biography:...
, and others made significant discoveries in medicine
Medicine
Medicine is the science and art of healing. It encompasses a variety of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....
, neuroscience
Neuroscience
Neuroscience is the scientific study of the nervous system. Traditionally, neuroscience has been seen as a branch of biology. However, it is currently an interdisciplinary science that collaborates with other fields such as chemistry, computer science, engineering, linguistics, mathematics,...
and psychology
Psychology
Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior. Its immediate goal is to understand individuals and groups by both establishing general principles and researching specific cases. For many, the ultimate goal of psychology is to benefit society...
while working at McGill. The Montreal Neurological Institute
Montreal Neurological Institute
The Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital is an academic medical centre dedicated to neuroscience research, training and clinical care. The Institute is part of McGill University and the Hospital is one of the five teaching hospitals of the McGill University Health Centre, in Montreal,...
is also located in McGill university, where many of these individuals worked. The first hormone governing the Immune System (later christened the Cytokine 'Interleukin-2') was discovered at McGill in 1965 by Gordon & McLean. The invention of the world's first artificial cell was made by Thomas Chang
Thomas Chang
Thomas Ming Swi Chang, is a Canadian physician and scientist.In 1957, while an undergraduate at McGill University he invented the world's first artificial cell...
, an undergraduate student at the university. While chair of physics at McGill, nuclear physicist Ernest Rutherford
Ernest Rutherford
Ernest Rutherford, 1st Baron Rutherford of Nelson OM, FRS was a New Zealand-born British chemist and physicist who became known as the father of nuclear physics...
performed the experiment that led to the discovery of the alpha particle and its function in radioactive decay, which won him the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1908. Alumnus Jack Szostak, now a professor of genetics at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, was awarded the 2009 Nobel Prize in medicine for discovering a key mechanism in the genetic operations of cells, an insight that has inspired new lines of research into cancer.
William Chalmers invented Plexiglas while a graduate student at McGill. In computing, MUSIC/SP
MUSIC/SP
MUSIC/SP was developed at McGill University in the 1970s from an early IBM time-sharing system called RAX...
, software for mainframes once popular among universities and colleges around the world, was developed at McGill. A team also contributed to the development of Archie
Archie search engine
Archie is a tool for indexing FTP archives, allowing people to find specific files. It is considered to be the first Internet search engine. The original implementation was written in 1990 by Alan Emtage, Bill Heelan, and J...
, a pre-WWW
World Wide Web
The World Wide Web is a system of interlinked hypertext documents accessed via the Internet...
search engine. A 3270 terminal emulator developed at McGill was commercialized and later sold to Hummingbird Software.
Academics
McGill is Canada's top-ranked university among those offering medical and doctoral degrees, ranking first in Canada for the sixth consecutive year in the Maclean'sMaclean's
Maclean's is a Canadian weekly news magazine, reporting on Canadian issues such as politics, pop culture, and current events.-History:Founded in 1905 by Toronto journalist/entrepreneur Lt.-Col. John Bayne Maclean, a 43-year-old trade magazine publisher who purchased an advertising agency's in-house...
20th annual University Rankings issue. The university has held first place in student awards for nine consecutive years, and consistently ranks first for reputation, average size, and number of social sciences and humanities grants per full-time faculty. The Gourman Ranking of Canadian Universities also ranked McGill first in Canada in its 1998 report on undergraduate programs.
In the 2011 QS World University Rankings
QS World University Rankings
The QS World University Rankings is a ranking of the world’s top 500 universities by Quacquarelli Symonds using a method that has published annually since 2004....
, McGill was ranked the best university in Canada, the second best public university in North America (behind University of Michigan
University of Michigan
The University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...
), and 17th in the world, going up two places since the 2010 THE-QS World University Rankings (in 2010 Times Higher Education World University Rankings
Times Higher Education World University Rankings
The Times Higher Education World University Rankings is an international ranking of universities published by the British magazine Times Higher Education in partnership with Thomson Reuters, which provided citation database information...
and QS World University Rankings
QS World University Rankings
The QS World University Rankings is a ranking of the world’s top 500 universities by Quacquarelli Symonds using a method that has published annually since 2004....
parted ways to produce separate rankings). Within specific fields, in 2009 McGill ranked 10th in the life sciences
Life sciences
The life sciences comprise the fields of science that involve the scientific study of living organisms, like plants, animals, and human beings. While biology remains the centerpiece of the life sciences, technological advances in molecular biology and biotechnology have led to a burgeoning of...
and biomedicine
Biomedicine
Biomedicine is a branch of medical science that applies biological and other natural-science principles to clinical practice,. Biomedicine, i.e. medical research, involves the study of physiological processes with methods from biology, chemistry and physics. Approaches range from understanding...
, 14th in the arts
ARts
aRts, which stands for analog Real time synthesizer, is an audio framework that is no longer under development. It is best known for previously being used in KDE to simulate an analog synthesizer....
and humanities
Humanities
The humanities are academic disciplines that study the human condition, using methods that are primarily analytical, critical, or speculative, as distinguished from the mainly empirical approaches of the natural sciences....
, 17th in the social sciences
Social sciences
Social science is the field of study concerned with society. "Social science" is commonly used as an umbrella term to refer to a plurality of fields outside of the natural sciences usually exclusive of the administrative or managerial sciences...
, 26th in the natural sciences, and 20th in technology
Technology
Technology is the making, usage, and knowledge of tools, machines, techniques, crafts, systems or methods of organization in order to solve a problem or perform a specific function. It can also refer to the collection of such tools, machinery, and procedures. The word technology comes ;...
. When McGill placed 12th overall in the 2007 ranking, the achievement was regarded as the "highest rank to be reached by a Canadian institution." McGill ranks 28th in the world according to the 2011 Times Higher Education World University Rankings
Times Higher Education World University Rankings
The Times Higher Education World University Rankings is an international ranking of universities published by the British magazine Times Higher Education in partnership with Thomson Reuters, which provided citation database information...
. In the most recent ranking of world universities by U.S. News & World Report
U.S. News & World Report
U.S. News & World Report is an American news magazine published from Washington, D.C. Along with Time and Newsweek it was for many years a leading news weekly, focusing more than its counterparts on political, economic, health and education stories...
, McGill university is ranked 18th. In Shanghai Jiao Tong University
Shanghai Jiao Tong University
Shanghai Jiao Tong University or SJTU), sometimes referred to as Shanghai Jiaotong University , is a top public research university located in Shanghai, China. Shanghai Jiao Tong University is known as one of the oldest and most prestigious universities in China...
's Academic Ranking of World Universities
Academic Ranking of World Universities
The Academic Ranking of World Universities , commonly known as the Shanghai ranking, is a publication that was founded and compiled by the Shanghai Jiaotong University to rank universities globally. The rankings have been conducted since 2003 and updated annually...
2011, McGill ranked third in Canada and 64th in the world. In its 2006 ranking of global universities, Newsweek
Newsweek
Newsweek is an American weekly news magazine published in New York City. It is distributed throughout the United States and internationally. It is the second-largest news weekly magazine in the U.S., having trailed Time in circulation and advertising revenue for most of its existence...
ranked McGill third in Canada, 30th in North America, and 42nd worldwide. In the 2008 College Prowler Online
College Prowler
College Prowler is an American publishing company for guidebooks on top colleges and universities in the United States.The company creates guidebooks written by current college students, for prospective college students, giving an insider's view...
rankings for Academics at North American universities, McGill earned an A- for Academics; making it the only Canadian school to achieve a grade above a B-.
In 2009, Forbes
Forbes
Forbes is an American publishing and media company. Its flagship publication, the Forbes magazine, is published biweekly. Its primary competitors in the national business magazine category are Fortune, which is also published biweekly, and Business Week...
ranked McGill's business school, the Desautels Faculty of Management
Desautels Faculty of Management
The Desautels Faculty of Management is one of the constituent faculties of McGill University. The Faculty has been host to the McGill Management International Case Competition since 2001...
, 11th in the world among non-U.S. universities for its two-year MBA program. The Eduniversal
Eduniversal
Eduniversal is a French consulting company and a rating agency specialized in Higher Education. Founded in 1994, one of the main goals of Eduniversal is to provide a tool, for students all around the world, which provides information on the Best Business Schools, located in Eduniversal's 9...
Ranking placed the Desautels Faculty of Management of McGill University first in Canada and 8th in the world among business schools. The Financial Times, in its global MBA ranking, placed Desautels 44th in the world in 2006 and 57th in 2011. The ranking placed it 33rd and 31st worldwide in the value for money and alumni recommended categories respectively. In BusinessWeek
BusinessWeek
Bloomberg Businessweek, commonly and formerly known as BusinessWeek, is a weekly business magazine published by Bloomberg L.P. It is currently headquartered in New York City.- History :...
's Best International B-Schools Of 2008, Desautels was ranked among the top 16 international business schools, ranking fourth in intellectual capital with a selectivity of 32%.
Since Maclean's began ranking Canadian law schools in 2007, it has placed McGill's law school second overall for the second year in a row. In particular, McGill's law school, which requires reading knowledge of French and offers the joint B.C.L./LL.B. degree in both civil law and common law, ranked first by supreme court clerkships, second by elite firm hiring, third by faculty hiring, fourth by faculty journal citations
Journal Citation Reports
Journal Citation Reports is an annual publication by the Healthcare & Science division of Thomson Reuters. It has been integrated with the Web of Knowledge, by Thomson Reuters, and is accessed from the Web of Science to JCR Web. It provides information about academic journals in the sciences and...
, and eighth by national reach.
The Globe and Mail
The Globe and Mail
The Globe and Mail is a nationally distributed Canadian newspaper, based in Toronto and printed in six cities across the country. With a weekly readership of approximately 1 million, it is Canada's largest-circulation national newspaper and second-largest daily newspaper after the Toronto Star...
s Canadian University Report awarded McGill top marks in its 2008 annual university survey. McGill received an A+ for Academic Reputation, the highest score of any large, medium, or small sized University. Additionally the school received an A- for: most satisfied students, quality of education, extracurricular activities, recreation and athletics, and campus atmosphere; as well as A's in both library services and campus technology. The Canadian University Report awarded McGill's downtown campus a D for its 'on-campus' food services and a C for its on-campus pub Gerts.
Research
Research Infosource named McGill "Research University of the Year" in its 2003 and 2005 rankings of Canada's Top 50 Research Universities.In 2007, Research Infosource ranked McGill the second-best research university in the country, after the University of Toronto
University of Toronto
The University of Toronto is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, situated on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution of higher learning in Upper Canada...
.
They also ranked McGill University third in Canada in research-intensity and fourth in total-research funding, finding that McGill ranks in the top five universities in terms of research dollars per full-time faculty member and number of refereed publications per full-time faculty member. The study showed that research funding represents approximately $259,100 per faculty member, the fourth highest in the country.
Other
McGill was named one of "Canada's Top 100 EmployersCanada's Top 100 Employers
Canada's Top 100 Employers is an annual competition that recognizes the best places in Canada to work. First held in 1999, the project aims to single out the employers that lead their industries in offering exceptional working conditions and progressive human resources policies. Winners are...
" in October 2008 and October 2009 by Mediacorp Canada Inc., and was featured in Maclean's
Maclean's
Maclean's is a Canadian weekly news magazine, reporting on Canadian issues such as politics, pop culture, and current events.-History:Founded in 1905 by Toronto journalist/entrepreneur Lt.-Col. John Bayne Maclean, a 43-year-old trade magazine publisher who purchased an advertising agency's in-house...
newsmagazine.
The Sustainable Endowments Institute gave McGill a grade of "B" on the 2009 College Sustainability Report Card for its improvements in on-campus environmental sustainability, with only 34 schools earning higher grade.
Playboy
Playboy
Playboy is an American men's magazine that features photographs of nude women as well as journalism and fiction. It was founded in Chicago in 1953 by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from Hefner's mother. The magazine has grown into Playboy Enterprises, Inc., with...
magazine, in its May 2006 issue, ranked McGill as the tenth best party school
Party school
A party school is a college or university that has a reputation for heavy alcohol and drug use or a general culture of licentiousness. The best-known list of alleged party schools is published annually by The Princeton Review. The magazine Playboy also releases a list of party schools on an...
in North America. McGill was the only Canadian university in the list.
Admissions
For Fall 2010, McGill accepted 13,709 (47.2%) of 29,059 undergraduate applicants, and 3,537 (34.4%) of 10,268 graduate applicants; about 6,000 undergraduates and 2,000 graduates matriculate each year. Among admitted students, the median Quebec CEGEPCégep
CEGEP is an acronym for , which is literally translated as "College of General and Vocational Education" but commonly called "General and Vocational College" in circles not influenced by Quebec English. It refers to the public post-secondary education collegiate institutions exclusive to the...
r-score was 30.1, while the median grade 12 averages for students entering McGill from outside of Quebec ranged between 91% and 92% (A). For American students, the median SAT
SAT
The SAT Reasoning Test is a standardized test for college admissions in the United States. The SAT is owned, published, and developed by the College Board, a nonprofit organization in the United States. It was formerly developed, published, and scored by the Educational Testing Service which still...
scores in the verbal, math, and writing sections were 690, 700, and 690 respectively, for a combined SAT score of around 2070; the median ACT score was 31.
For law students, the median undergraduate GPA was 85% (or 3.7 on a 4.0 scale) and the median LSAT score was 163 (88.1th percentile) out of a possible 180 points. For medical students, the median undergraduate GPA was 3.8 out of 4.0 and the median MCAT score was 32.1. Among the 30% of applicants admitted to the Desautels Faculty of Management's MBA program, applicants had, on average, a GMAT score of 665, an age of 27, and 49 months of work experience.
Downtown campus
Downtown Montreal
Downtown Montreal is the central business district of Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is nearly enitirely located at the southern most slope of Mount Royal and is approximately bounded by Sherbrooke Street to the north, Papineau Avenue to the east, Guy Street or until Shaughnessy Village to the west,...
at the foot of Mount Royal
Mount Royal
Mount Royal is a mountain in the city of Montreal, immediately west of downtown Montreal, Quebec, Canada, the city to which it gave its name.The mountain is part of the Monteregian Hills situated between the Laurentians and the Appalachians...
. Most of its buildings are situated in a park-like campus located north of Sherbrooke Street
Sherbrooke Street
Sherbrooke Street is a major east-west artery and at in length, is the second longest street on the Island of Montreal. The street begins in the town of Montreal West and ends on the extreme tip of the island in Pointe-aux-Trembles, intersecting Gouin Boulevard and joining up with Notre-Dame...
and south of Pine Ave between Peel
Peel Street, Montreal
Peel Street is a major north-south street located in downtown Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The Street links Pine Avenue, near Mount Royal, in the north and Smith Street, in the Southwest borough, in the south. The street's southern end is at the Peel Basin of the Lachine Canal...
and Aylmer streets. The campus also extends west of Peel for several blocks, starting north of Docteur-Penfield. The campus is near the Peel
Peel (Montreal Metro)
Peel is a station on the Green Line of the Metro rapid transit system operated by the Société de transport de Montréal . It is downtown in the borough of Ville-Marie in Montreal, Quebec, Canada...
and McGill
McGill (Montreal Metro)
McGill is a station on the Green Line of the Montreal Metro rapid transit system operated by the Société de transport de Montréal . It is located downtown in the borough of Ville-Marie in Montreal, Quebec, Canada . The station opened on October 14, 1966, as part of the original network of the metro...
metro
Montreal Metro
The Montreal Metro is a rubber-tired metro system, and the main form of public transportation underground in the city of Montreal, Quebec, Canada....
stations. All of the major university buildings were constructed using local grey limestone, which serves as a unifying element.
The university's first classes were held in at Burnside Place, James McGill's country home. Burnside Place remained the sole educational facility until the 1840s, when the school began construction on its first buildings: the central and east wings of the Arts Building. The rest of the campus was essentially a cow pasture
Pasture
Pasture is land used for grazing. Pasture lands in the narrow sense are enclosed tracts of farmland, grazed by domesticated livestock, such as horses, cattle, sheep or swine. The vegetation of tended pasture, forage, consists mainly of grasses, with an interspersion of legumes and other forbs...
, a situation similar to the few other Canadian universities and early American colleges of the age.
The university's athletic facilities, including Molson Stadium
Molson Stadium
Percival Molson Memorial Stadium is an outdoor football stadium located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada...
, are located on Mount Royal, near the residence halls and the Montreal Neurological Institute. The Gymnasium is named in honour of General Sir Arthur William Currie.
Residence
McGill's residence system is relatively small for a school of its size, housing approximately 2,700 undergraduate students and a handful of graduate students. Most McGill students do not live in residenceDormitory
A dormitory, often shortened to dorm, in the United States is a residence hall consisting of sleeping quarters or entire buildings primarily providing sleeping and residential quarters for large numbers of people, often boarding school, college or university students...
(known colloquially
Colloquialism
A colloquialism is a word or phrase that is common in everyday, unconstrained conversation rather than in formal speech, academic writing, or paralinguistics. Dictionaries often display colloquial words and phrases with the abbreviation colloq. as an identifier...
as "rez") after their first year of study, even if they are not from the Montreal area. With the exception of students returning as "floor fellows" or "dons", the majority of McGill residences are for first-year undergraduate students only. Senior students are expected to find off-campus housing.
Many first-year students live in the Bishop Mountain Residences ("Upper Rez"), a series of concrete dormitories on the slope of Mount Royal, consisting of McConnell Hall
John Wilson McConnell
John Wilson McConnell was a Canadian businessman, newspaper publisher, humanitarian, and the most significant philanthropist in the history of the province of Quebec, Canada.-Early life:...
, Molson Hall, Gardner Hall, and Douglas Hall. Douglas Hall, which opened in 1937, is distinguished by its impressive stone facade and wood interiors. McConnell, Molson, and Gardner Halls, all built in the 1960s, share a cafeteria
Cafeteria
A cafeteria is a type of food service location in which there is little or no waiting staff table service, whether a restaurant or within an institution such as a large office building or school; a school dining location is also referred to as a dining hall or canteen...
, located at the centre of the three dormitories, known as Bishop Mountain Hall.
Royal Victoria College, the second-largest residence at McGill, was a women's only dormitory; however in September 2010 the dormitory became co-ed. McGill's second newest residence, aptly named New Residence Hall ("New Rez") is a converted four-star hotel located a few blocks east of campus. New Rez is the largest of the university's dormitories. Solin Hall is an apartment-style residence four metro
Montreal Metro
The Montreal Metro is a rubber-tired metro system, and the main form of public transportation underground in the city of Montreal, Quebec, Canada....
stops from campus. The McGill Off-Campus Residence Experience (MORE) residences consist of a series of converted apartment buildings and houses, the largest of which is The Greenbriar, an apartment-style residence located across from the Milton Gates.
In autumn 2008, due to increased demand for first-year housing, the University chose to lease four floors of a privately owned apartment building for use as a university residence. The building, called "515 Ste. Catherine", is on the corner of Rue Ste. Catherine and Rue City Councillors, close to campus yet in the heart of downtown Montreal. It was completely renovated and featured a gym, movie theater, and fully furnished apartments. However, the McGill Residence Office decided to forgo use of the building after summer 2009. In April 2009, McGill acquired the Four Points Sheraton Hotel at 475 Sherbrooke Street West. The hotel was converted into a new student residence, which opened in fall 2009. Although it is the newest residence, students either call it Carrefour, or, informally, "C4." Officially, however, the building has been named Carrefour Sherbrooke Residence Hall.
Most second-year students transition to off-campus apartment housing, and apartment hunting is sometimes seen as a rite of passage for McGill students. Many students end up living in the "McGill Ghetto
McGill Ghetto
The McGill Ghetto is a neighbourhood in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, named after McGill University, situated directly to the east of the university campus. The Ghetto is located in the Plateau-Mont-Royal borough of Montreal...
", the neighbourhood directly to the east of the downtown campus. In recent years, finding affordable housing has been challenging because of the city's tight housing market, particularly in neighbourhoods close to the McGill campus. Students have begun moving out to other areas because of rising rent prices.
Master plan
McGill has begun an ambitious process to lay the groundwork for future development. A Task Force on Campus Planning has been created to study the issue. It has begun to consult widely within the McGill and greater community on a broad range of issues including community life, physical development plans, and other issues. Its recommendations include how McGill can develop in a way that supports the University’s mission and goals, and continues to benefit and bring value to the surrounding areas and the greater Montreal community. Among the guiding principles of the Task Force’s work are commitment to community, responsible stewardship, maintenance of green space and the integrity of the mountain, and the preservation of heritage architectural assets.One recent initiative turned McGill into a car-free campus.
Redevelopment plan
In 2006, the Quebec government initiated a $1.6 billion LEEDLeadership in Energy and Environmental Design
Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design consists of a suite of rating systems for the design, construction and operation of high performance green buildings, homes and neighborhoods....
redevelopment project for the McGill University Health Centre
McGill University Health Centre
The McGill University Health Centre is a network of teaching and community hospitals in Montreal, Quebec, Canada affiliated with McGill University....
(MUHC). The project will expand facilities to two separate campuses and consolidate the various hospitals of the MUHC on the site of an old CP
Canadian Pacific Railway
The Canadian Pacific Railway , formerly also known as CP Rail between 1968 and 1996, is a historic Canadian Class I railway founded in 1881 and now operated by Canadian Pacific Railway Limited, which began operations as legal owner in a corporate restructuring in 2001...
rail yard
Rail yard
A rail yard, or railroad yard, is a complex series of railroad tracks for storing, sorting, or loading/unloading, railroad cars and/or locomotives. Railroad yards have many tracks in parallel for keeping rolling stock stored off the mainline, so that they do not obstruct the flow of traffic....
adjacent to the Vendôme
Vendôme (Montreal Metro)
Vendôme is a station on the Orange Line of the Montreal Metro rapid transit system, operated by the Société de transport de Montréal . It is located in the Notre-Dame-de-Grâce area of the borough of Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.Originally, two stations were...
metro
Montreal Metro
The Montreal Metro is a rubber-tired metro system, and the main form of public transportation underground in the city of Montreal, Quebec, Canada....
station. This site, known as Glen Yards, comprises 170000 square metres (203,318.3 sq yd) and spans portions of Montreal's Notre-Dame-de-Grâce
Notre-Dame-de-Grâce
Notre-Dame-de-Grâce , also nicknamed NDG, is a residential neighbourhood of Montreal located in the city's west-end. It is one of five districts of the borough of Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce...
neighbourhood and the city of Westmount
Westmount, Quebec
Westmount is a city on the Island of Montreal, an enclave of the city of Montreal, in southwestern Quebec, Canada; pop. 20,494; area 4.02 km²; population density of 5,092.56 inhabitants/km²....
. The Glen Yards project has been controversial due to local opposition to the project, environmental issues, and the cost of the project itself. The project, which has received approval from the provincial government, was, in 2003, expected to be complete by 2010. The new 'campus' is now expected to open in 2014 or 2015.
Macdonald campus
Macdonald Campus
The Macdonald Campus of McGill University houses its Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, School of Dietetics and Human Nutrition, and the McGill School of Environment.- History :...
, in Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue
Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue, Quebec
Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue is a town located at the western tip of the Island of Montreal in southwestern Quebec, Canada. It is the second oldest community in Montreal's West Island, having been founded as a parish in 1703...
houses the Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Science, the School of Dietetics and Human Nutrition, the Institute of Parasitology, and the McGill School of Environment. The Morgan Arboretum
Morgan Arboretum
The Morgan Arboretum is a forested reserve, situated on the McGill University Macdonald Campus in Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue on the western tip of the island of Montreal, in Quebec, Canada...
and the J. S. Marshall Radar Observatory are nearby.
The Morgan Arboretum
Arboretum
An arboretum in a narrow sense is a collection of trees only. Related collections include a fruticetum , and a viticetum, a collection of vines. More commonly, today, an arboretum is a botanical garden containing living collections of woody plants intended at least partly for scientific study...
was created in 1945. It is a 2.5 square kilometre (0.965255396481338 sq mi) forested reserve with the aim of 'teaching, research, and public education'. Its mandated research goals are to continue research related to maintaining the health of the Arboretum plantations and woodland
Woodland
Ecologically, a woodland is a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunlight and limited shade. Woodlands may support an understory of shrubs and herbaceous plants including grasses. Woodland may form a transition to shrubland under drier conditions or during early stages of...
s, to develop new programs related to selecting species
Species
In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring. While in many cases this definition is adequate, more precise or differing measures are...
adapted
Adaptation
An adaptation in biology is a trait with a current functional role in the life history of an organism that is maintained and evolved by means of natural selection. An adaptation refers to both the current state of being adapted and to the dynamic evolutionary process that leads to the adaptation....
to developing environmental conditions and to develop silvicultural practices that preserve and enhance biological diversity
Biodiversity
Biodiversity is the degree of variation of life forms within a given ecosystem, biome, or an entire planet. Biodiversity is a measure of the health of ecosystems. Biodiversity is in part a function of climate. In terrestrial habitats, tropical regions are typically rich whereas polar regions...
in both natural stands and plantations.
Sustainability
In 2007, McGill premiered its Office of Sustainability and added a second full-time position in this area, the Director of Sustainability in addition to the Sustainability Officer. Recent efforts in implementing its sustainable development plan include the new Life Sciences Center which was built with LEED-Silver certification and a green roof, as well as an increase in parking rates in January 2008 to fund other sustainability projects. Other student projects include The Flat: Bike Collective, which promotes alternative transportation, and the Farmer's Market, which occurs during the fall harvest. The Farmer's Market and many other initiatives came out of student collaboration during the Rethink Conference 2008.Other facilities
McGill's Bellairs Research InstituteBellairs Research Institute
The Bellairs Research Institute, located on the Caribbean island of Barbados, was founded in 1954 as a field-station for McGill University. Initial funding was from a bequest by British naval commander, Carlyon Bellairs, for whom the institute is named. Bellairs is located in Holetown, next to...
, located in St. James, Barbados 13°10′N 59°35′W, is Canada's only teaching and research facility in the tropics. The institute has been in use for over 50 years. Its facilities are regularly utilized by the Canadian Space Agency for research.
The laboratories of the Huntsman Marine Science Centre
Huntsman Marine Science Centre
The Huntsman Marine Science Centre is located on Lower Campus Road in St. Andrews, New Brunswick, Canada...
are located in St. Andrews, N.B.
St. Andrews, New Brunswick
St. Andrews is a Canadian town in Charlotte County, New Brunswick.It is sometimes referred to in tourism marketing by its unofficial nickname "St. Andrews-by-the-sea".-Geography:St...
, on 300000 square metres (358,797 sq yd) of land at the estuary
Estuary
An estuary is a partly enclosed coastal body of water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea....
of the St. Croix River
St. Croix River (Maine-New Brunswick)
The St. Croix River is a river in northeastern North America, in length, that forms part of the Canada – United States border between Maine and New Brunswick . The river rises in the Chiputneticook Lakes and flows south and southeast, between Calais and St. Stephen...
. It hosts the Atlantic Reference Centre, which is known throughout the Maritimes
Maritimes
The Maritime provinces, also called the Maritimes or the Canadian Maritimes, is a region of Eastern Canada consisting of three provinces, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island. On the Atlantic coast, the Maritimes are a subregion of Atlantic Canada, which also includes the...
for its extensive marine biology collections. The HMS is a research facility "committed to the advancement of the marine sciences through basic and applied research" and acts as a field facility for research and teaching by McGill and other member universities.
McGill's Gault Nature Reserve
Nature reserve
A nature reserve is a protected area of importance for wildlife, flora, fauna or features of geological or other special interest, which is reserved and managed for conservation and to provide special opportunities for study or research...
45°32′N 73°10′W spans over 10 square kilometres (3.9 sq mi) of forest land, the largest remaining remnant of the primeval forests
Old growth forest
An old-growth forest is a forest that has attained great age , and thereby exhibits unique ecological features. An old growth forest has also usually reached a climax community...
of the St. Lawrence River Valley
Saint Lawrence River
The Saint Lawrence is a large river flowing approximately from southwest to northeast in the middle latitudes of North America, connecting the Great Lakes with the Atlantic Ocean. It is the primary drainage conveyor of the Great Lakes Basin...
. The first scientific studies at the site occurred in 1859. The site has been the site of extensive research activities:
"Today there are over 400 scientific articles, 100 graduate theses, more than 50 government reports and about 30 book chapters that are based on research at Mont St. Hilaire
Mont-Saint-Hilaire, Quebec
Mont-Saint-Hilaire is an off-island suburb of Montréal in southeastern Québec, Canada on the Richelieu River in the Regional County Municipality of La Vallée-du-Richelieu...
."
In addition to McGill's own Health Centre, McGill has been directly partnered with five separate teaching hospital
Teaching hospital
A teaching hospital is a hospital that provides clinical education and training to future and current doctors, nurses, and other health professionals, in addition to delivering medical care to patients...
s for decades, and also has a history of collaborating with many hospitals in Montreal. These cooperations allow the university to graduate over 1,000 students in health care
Health care
Health care is the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of disease, illness, injury, and other physical and mental impairments in humans. Health care is delivered by practitioners in medicine, chiropractic, dentistry, nursing, pharmacy, allied health, and other care providers...
each year. McGill's contract-affiliated teaching hospitals include: Montreal Children's Hospital
Montreal Children's Hospital
The Montreal Children's Hospital is a tertiary care pediatric teaching Hospital affiliated with the McGill University Health Centre. It is also the only pediatric facility serving the McGill Réseau Universitaire Intégré Santé...
, Montreal General Hospital
Montreal General Hospital
The Montreal General Hospital is a hospital in Montreal, Canada, established on May 1, 1819 and an early teaching hospital. First located on the corner of Craig and St-Lawrence Streets with only 24 beds, it moved in 1822 to a new 72-bed building on Dorchester Street. It is currently situated on...
, Montreal Neurological Hospital, Montreal Chest Institute
Montreal Chest Institute
Montreal Chest Institute is a health centre in Montreal specializing in respiratory medicine....
and Royal Victoria Hospital. Other hospitals that health care students may use include: Sir Mortimer B. Davis – Jewish General Hospital
Sir Mortimer B. Davis Jewish General Hospital
The Jewish General Hospital is an acute-care McGill University teaching hospital with 637 beds, serving patients from Montreal, from across the province of Quebec and around the world.The Jewish General...
, Douglas Hospital
Douglas Hospital
The Douglas Mental Health University Institute is a Canadian psychiatric hospital located in the borough of Verdun in the city of Montreal, Quebec. It is also a teaching hospital affiliated with McGill University...
and St. Mary's Hospital Center.
University identity and culture
Coat of arms
A coat of arms is a unique heraldic design on a shield or escutcheon or on a surcoat or tabard used to cover and protect armour and to identify the wearer. Thus the term is often stated as "coat-armour", because it was anciently displayed on the front of a coat of cloth...
is derived from an armorial device assumed during his lifetime by the founder of the University, James McGill. The University's patent of arms was granted by England's Garter-King-at-Arms in 1922 and registered in 1956 with Lord Lyon King of Arms in Edinburgh and in 1992 with the Public Register of Arms, Flags and Badges of Canada. In heraldic terms, the coat of arms is described as follows: "Argent three Martlets Gules, on a chief dancette of the second, an open book proper garnished or bearing the legend In Domino Confido in letters Sable between two crowns of the first. Motto: Grandescunt Aucta Labore." The coat of arms consists of two parts, the shield and the scroll. The University publishes a guide to the use of the University's arms and motto.
The university's symbol is the martlet
Martlet
A martlet is a heraldic charge depicting a stylized bird with short tufts of feathers in the place of legs...
, stemming from the presence of the mythical bird on the official arms
Coat of arms
A coat of arms is a unique heraldic design on a shield or escutcheon or on a surcoat or tabard used to cover and protect armour and to identify the wearer. Thus the term is often stated as "coat-armour", because it was anciently displayed on the front of a coat of cloth...
of the university. The school's official colours are red and white. McGill's motto is Grandescunt Aucta Labore, Latin for "By work, all things increase and grow."
The official school song
School song
A school song, alma mater, school hymn or school anthem is the patronal song of a school. In England, this tradition is particularly strong in public schools and grammar schools.-Australia:*Melbourne High School - Honour the Work...
is entitled "Hail, Alma Mater
Alma mater
Alma mater , pronounced ), was used in ancient Rome as a title for various mother goddesses, especially Ceres or Cybele, and in Christianity for the Virgin Mary.-General term:...
."
Language policy
Though McGill allowed students to write graduation theses in French as early as 1835, McGill never became a francophone or officially bilingual university. Today, McGill is one of only three English-languageEnglish language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
universities in Quebec; fluency in French is not a requirement to attend. The Faculty of Law does, however, require all students to be "passively bilingual", meaning that all students must be able to understand written and spoken French—or English if the student is francophone—since English or French may be used at any time in a course. Since 1964, students in all faculties have been able to write exams and papers in either English or French, provided that the objective of the class is not to learn a particular language.
The 1960s represented an era of large nationalist and labour mobilizations in Quebec. At the time, English was seen as the privileged language of commerce. McGill, where francophone
Francophone
The adjective francophone means French-speaking, typically as primary language, whether referring to individuals, groups, or places. Often, the word is used as a noun to describe a natively French-speaking person....
s comprised only three percent of the student population, was seen by some as a bastion of anglophone privilege in a predominantly French-speaking city.
The McGill français movement began in 1969, clamouring for a new McGill that would be francophone, pro-nationalist, and pro-worker. The movement was led by Stanley Gray, a political science
Political science
Political Science is a social science discipline concerned with the study of the state, government and politics. Aristotle defined it as the study of the state. It deals extensively with the theory and practice of politics, and the analysis of political systems and political behavior...
professor
Professor
A professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...
. It was argued that, since McGill received the lion's share of government funding, paid by a taxpayer base that was largely francophone, the university should equally be accessible to that segment of the population. Gray led a demonstration of 10,000 trade unionists, leftist activists, CEGEP students, and even some McGill students, at the university's Roddick Gates
Roddick Gates
The Roddick Memorial Gates are a monument in Montreal and the main entrance to the McGill University.The Roddick Gates are on Sherbrooke Street and are at the head of the very short but broad McGill College Avenue which starts at Place Ville-Marie....
on March 28, 1969. Protesters shouted "McGill français", "McGill aux Québécois", and "McGill aux travailleurs" (McGill for workers). However, the majority of students and faculty opposed such a position, and many of the protesters were arrested. The McGill français protest was, at the time, the second-largest protest in the history of Montreal. Francophone students, whether they're from inside the province or are international, now make up approximately 18 percent of the student body, a goal set by the administration partially in the wake of the movement.
Student organizations
Students' union
A students' union, student government, student senate, students' association, guild of students or government of student body is a student organization present in many colleges and universities, and has started appearing in some high schools...
represented by the undergraduate Students' Society of McGill University
Students' Society of McGill University
The Students' Society of McGill University is the accredited representative of the undergraduate student body at the downtown campus of McGill University.-Membership:...
(SSMU) and the Post-Graduate Students' Society of McGill University (PGSS). Due to the large postdoctoral population, the PGSS also contains a semi-autonomous Association of Postdoctoral Fellows (APF). In addition, each faculty has its own student governing body. There are hundreds of clubs and student organizations at the university. Many of them are centred around McGill's student union building, the University Centre. In 1992, students held a referendum
Referendum
A referendum is a direct vote in which an entire electorate is asked to either accept or reject a particular proposal. This may result in the adoption of a new constitution, a constitutional amendment, a law, the recall of an elected official or simply a specific government policy. It is a form of...
which called for the University Centre to be named for actor and McGill alumnus William Shatner
William Shatner
William Alan Shatner is a Canadian actor, musician, recording artist, and author. He gained worldwide fame and became a cultural icon for his portrayal of James T...
. The university administration refused to accept the name and did not attend the opening. Traditionally, the administration names buildings in honour of deceased members of the university community or for major benefactors—Shatner is neither.
McGill has two English-language student-run newspapers: the McGill Daily and the McGill Tribune
McGill Tribune
The McGill Tribune is an independent campus newspaper published by the Tribune Publication Society in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It has a circulation of 11,000 between McGill's downtown and Macdonald campuses...
, both of which are financially independent
Independent business
In business, an independent business as a term of distinction generally refers to privately owned companies . Independent businesses most commonly take the form of sole-proprietorships...
publications. The McGill Daily was first published in 1911. The Daily is currently is published twice weekly. The Délit français is the Daily's French-language counterpart. The combined circulation of both papers is over 28,000. The McGill Foreign Affairs Review is a student-run journal about international affairs. Since 1988, The Red Herring has been the main satire magazine of Mcgill University. CKUT (90.3 FM) is the campus radio station. TVMcGill
TVMcGill
TVMcGill is McGill University's on-campus television station, run by volunteering students on a non-profit basis. TVMcGill gained its official status as a Student's Society of McGill University club in 1996...
is the University TV station, broadcasting on closed-circuit television and over the internet. The McGill University Faculty of Law
McGill University Faculty of Law
The Faculty of Law is a constituent faculty of McGill University, in Montreal, Quebec. Its graduates obtain both a Bachelor of Laws and Bachelor of Civil Law , concurrently, in three to four years, allowing them to practice in both the Canadian, U.S...
is also home to three student-run academic journals, including the world renowned McGill Law Journal
McGill Law Journal
The McGill Law Journal is a scholarly legal publication affiliated with the student body of the McGill University Faculty of Law in Montreal, Quebec, published by a non-profit corporate institution independent of the Faculty run exclusively by students. It also publishes the Canadian Guide to...
, founded in 1952.
While fraternities and sororities are not a large part of student life at McGill, some, including fraternities Alpha Delta Phi
Alpha Delta Phi
Alpha Delta Phi is a Greek-letter social college fraternity and the fourth-oldest continuous Greek-letter fraternity in the United States and Canada. Alpha Delta Phi was founded on October 29, 1832 by Samuel Eells at Hamilton College and includes former U.S. Presidents, Chief Justices of the U.S....
, Sigma Chi
Sigma Chi
Sigma Chi is the largest and one of the oldest college Greek-letter secret and social fraternities in North America with 244 active chapters and more than . Sigma Chi was founded on June 28, 1855 at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio when members split from Delta Kappa Epsilon...
, Alpha Epsilon Pi
Alpha Epsilon Pi
Alpha Epsilon Pi , the Global Jewish college fraternity, has 155 active chapters in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom and Israel with a membership of over 9,000 undergraduates...
, Delta Upsilon
Delta Upsilon
Delta Upsilon is the sixth oldest international, all-male, college Greek-letter organization, and is the oldest non-secret fraternity in North America...
, and Zeta Psi
Zeta Psi
The Zeta Psi Fraternity of North America was founded June 1, 1847 as a social college fraternity. The organization now comprises about fifty active chapters and twenty-five inactive chapters, encompassing roughly fifty thousand brothers, and is a founding member of the North-American...
, and sororities Gamma Phi Beta
Gamma Phi Beta
Gamma Phi Beta is an international sorority that was founded on November 11, 1874, at Syracuse University in Syracuse, New York. The term "sorority," meaning sisterhood, was coined for Gamma Phi Beta by Dr. Frank Smalley, a professor at Syracuse University.The four founders are Helen M. Dodge,...
, Kappa Kappa Gamma
Kappa Kappa Gamma
Kappa Kappa Gamma is a collegiate women's fraternity, founded at Monmouth College, in Monmouth, Illinois, USA. Although the groundwork of the organization was developed as early as 1869, the 1876 Convention voted that October 13, 1870 should be recognized at the official Founders Day, because no...
, Kappa Alpha Theta
Kappa Alpha Theta
Kappa Alpha Theta , also known as Theta, is an international fraternity for women founded on January 27, 1870 at DePauw University, formerly Indiana Asbury...
, and Alpha Omicron Pi
Alpha Omicron Pi
Alpha Omicron Pi is an international women's fraternity promoting friendship for a lifetime, inspiring academic excellence and lifelong learning, and developing leadership skills through service to the Fraternity and community. ΑΟΠ was founded on January 2, 1897 at Barnard College on the campus...
, have been established for many years at the university. Phi Kappa Pi, Canada's only national fraternity, was founded at McGill and the University of Toronto in 1913 and continues to be active to this day. Events including Greek
Culture of Greece
The culture of Greece has evolved over thousands of years, beginning in Mycenaean Greece, continuing most notably into Classical Greece, through the influence of the Roman Empire and its Greek Eastern successor the Byzantine Empire...
week, held annually during the first week of February, have been established to promote Greek life on campus.
With just over 2% of the student body population participating, involvement is well below that of most American universities, but on par with most Canadian schools.
McGill has had a student club supporting lesbian
Lesbian
Lesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an...
, bisexual, gay
Gay
Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....
, and transgender
Transgender
Transgender is a general term applied to a variety of individuals, behaviors, and groups involving tendencies to vary from culturally conventional gender roles....
students since 1972. The group, originally named "Gay McGill", was renamed "Queer McGill" in 1998 to better identify with the diversity of its members. Queer McGill supports both students and non-student members of the McGill community. Membership in 2002 was over 400.
The three oldest a cappella groups on campus are Tonal Ecstasy, Effusion and Soulstice. These groups perform multiple times during the year at on- and off-campus events.
Student organizations at McGill are internationally recognized in a variety of ways. Many larger organizations and NGOs
Non-governmental organization
A non-governmental organization is a legally constituted organization created by natural or legal persons that operates independently from any government. The term originated from the United Nations , and is normally used to refer to organizations that do not form part of the government and are...
have a local presence on campus. The International Relations Students Association of McGill (IRSAM) currently has consultative status with the UN's Economic and Social Council
United Nations Economic and Social Council
The Economic and Social Council of the United Nations constitutes one of the six principal organs of the United Nations and it is responsible for the coordination of the economic, social and related work of 14 UN specialized agencies, its functional commissions and five regional commissions...
(ECOSOC) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Since 1990, IRSAM has hosted an annual Model United Nations
Model United Nations
Model United Nations is an academic simulation of the United Nations that aims to educate participants about current events, topics in international relations, diplomacy and the United Nations agenda....
, McMUN, for university students and since 1993 it has hosted an annual Model United Nations
Model United Nations
Model United Nations is an academic simulation of the United Nations that aims to educate participants about current events, topics in international relations, diplomacy and the United Nations agenda....
, SSUNS, for high school students.
Numerous other humanitarian groups can be found: UNICEF McGill, Oxfam
Oxfam
Oxfam is an international confederation of 15 organizations working in 98 countries worldwide to find lasting solutions to poverty and related injustice around the world. In all Oxfam’s actions, the ultimate goal is to enable people to exercise their rights and manage their own lives...
McGill, End Poverty Now
End Poverty Now
End Poverty Now is a nongovernmental, non profit advocacy organization dedicated to the alleviation of poverty both locally and worldwide. It is based in Montreal, Canada and was formed in 2004 by Ross Margulies and Nejeed Kassam, two students at McGill University...
, Right to Play
Right to Play
Right To Play is an international humanitarian organization that uses sport and play programs to improve health, develop life skills, and foster peace for children and communities in some of the most disadvantaged areas of the world...
McGill, and Free the Children
Free The Children
Free The Children is an international charity and youth movement founded in 1995 by children's rights advocate Craig Kielburger. The organization is largely youth-funded, based on the concept of "children helping children." It specializes in sustainable development in countries of Kenya, Ecuador,...
are just a few. Numerous student interest groups enhance university life while representing a variety of interests and perspectives.
Athletics
McGill is represented in Canadian Interuniversity SportCanadian Interuniversity Sport
Canadian Interuniversity Sport is the national governing body of university sport in Canada, comprising the majority of degree granting universities in the country. Its equivalent body for organized sports at colleges in Canada is The Canadian Colleges Athletic Association...
(CIS) by the McGill Redmen
McGill Redmen
The McGill Redmen CIS football team is one of the oldest in all of Canada, having begun organized competition in 1898. The team has appeared in three Vanier Cup national championships, in 1969, 1973 and 1987, with the Redmen finally winning the title in the 1987 game...
(men's) and the McGill Martlets
McGill Martlets
The McGill Martlets are the women's athletic teams that represent McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The men's teams are known as the McGill Redmen. The name Martlets is used in reference to the McGill University shield, which includes three martlets which were part of the coat of arms...
(women's). Following a major restructuring of the varsity programme for the fall semester of 2010, McGill is currently home to 29 varsity teams. McGill's unique mascot, Marty the Martlet
Martlet
A martlet is a heraldic charge depicting a stylized bird with short tufts of feathers in the place of legs...
, was introduced during the 2005 Homecoming game,
The downtown McGill campus sport and exercise facilities include: the McGill Sports Centre (which includes the Tomlinson Fieldhouse and the Windsor Varsity Clinic), Molson Stadium, Memorial Pool, Tomlinson Hall, McConnell Arena, Forbes Field, many outdoor tennis courts and other extra-curricular arena
Arena
An arena is an enclosed area, often circular or oval-shaped, designed to showcase theater, musical performances, or sporting events. It is composed of a large open space surrounded on most or all sides by tiered seating for spectators. The key feature of an arena is that the event space is the...
s and faculties. The Macdonald Campus facilities, include an arena, a gym
Gym
The word γυμνάσιον was used in Ancient Greece, that mean a locality for both physical and intellectual education of young men...
nasium, a pool
Swimming pool
A swimming pool, swimming bath, wading pool, or simply a pool, is a container filled with water intended for swimming or water-based recreation. There are many standard sizes; the largest is the Olympic-size swimming pool...
, tennis courts, fitness centres and hundreds of acres of green space for regular use. The university's largest sporting venue, Molson Stadium, was constructed in 1914. Following an expansion project completed in 2010, it now seats just over 25,000, and is the current home field of the Montreal Alouettes.
Athletic history
The inventions of North American footballGridiron football
Gridiron football , sometimes known as North American football, is an umbrella term for related codes of football primarily played in the United States and Canada. The predominant forms of gridiron football are American football and Canadian football...
, hockey
Ice hockey
Ice hockey, often referred to as hockey, is a team sport played on ice, in which skaters use wooden or composite sticks to shoot a hard rubber puck into their opponent's net. The game is played between two teams of six players each. Five members of each team skate up and down the ice trying to take...
, rugby
Rugby union
Rugby union, often simply referred to as rugby, is a full contact team sport which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand...
and basketball
Basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...
are all related to McGill in some way. Even the introduction of cross-country skiing
Cross-country skiing
Cross-country skiing is a winter sport in which participants propel themselves across snow-covered terrain using skis and poles...
has a McGill connection.
The first game of North American football was played between McGill and Harvard
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
on May 14, 1874, leading to the spread of American football throughout the Ivy League. One of the world's first organized hockey clubs, made up of McGill students, played their first game on January 31, 1877. Very soon thereafter, those McGill students wrote the first hockey rule book.In 1868, the first recorded game of rugby in North America occurred in Montreal, between British army officers and McGill students , giving McGill the oldest university-affiliated rugby club in North America. McGill alumnus James Naismith
James Naismith
The first game of "Basket Ball" was played in December 1891. In a handwritten report, Naismith described the circumstances of the inaugural match; in contrast to modern basketball, the players played nine versus nine, handled a soccer ball, not a basketball, and instead of shooting at two hoops,...
invented basketball in early December 1891. Norwegian Herman "Jackrabbit" Smith-Johannsen
Herman Smith-Johannsen
Herman "Jackrabbit" Smith-Johannsen, CM was a Norwegian-Canadian supercentenarian who gained widespread recognition for being one of the first people to introduce the sport of cross-country skiing to Canada and North America...
popularized cross-country skiing in North America from McGill's Gault Estate in Mont St. Hilaire. Johannsen also helped coach Canada's 1932 Olympic team.
There has been a McGill alumnus or alumna competing at every Olympic Games
Olympic Games
The Olympic Games is a major international event featuring summer and winter sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The Olympic Games have come to be regarded as the world’s foremost sports competition where more than 200 nations participate...
since 1908. Swimmer George Hodgson
George Hodgson
George Ritchie Hodgson was a Canadian swimmer of the early 20th century, and considered by many to be the greatest swimmer in Canadian history.He was born and died in Montreal....
won two gold medals at the 1912 Summer Olympics
1912 Summer Olympics
The 1912 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the V Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event held in Stockholm, Sweden, between 5 May and 27 July 1912. Twenty-eight nations and 2,407 competitors, including 48 women, competed in 102 events in 14 sports...
, ice hockey goaltender Kim St-Pierre
Kim St-Pierre
Kim St-Pierre is a women's ice hockey player.-McGill:In 1998-99, she was the top rookie for the McGill Martlets women's ice hockey team...
won gold medals at the 2002 Winter Olympics
2002 Winter Olympics
The 2002 Winter Olympics, officially the XIX Olympic Winter Games, were a winter multi-sport event that was celebrated in February 2002 in and around Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. Approximately 2,400 athletes from 77 nations participated in 78 events in fifteen disciplines, held throughout...
and at the 2006 Winter Olympics
2006 Winter Olympics
The 2006 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XX Olympic Winter Games, was a winter multi-sport event which was celebrated in Turin, Italy from February 10, 2006, through February 26, 2006. This marked the second time Italy hosted the Olympic Winter Games, the first being the VII Olympic Winter...
. Other 2006 gold medalists are Jennifer Heil
Jennifer Heil
Jennifer Heil is a Canadian freestyle skier from Spruce Grove, Alberta. Heil started skiing at age two. Jennifer Heil won the first gold medal for Canada in the 2006 Winter Olympics games in Turin, Italy and a silver medal at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, which was also Canada's first...
(women's freestyle mogul) and goaltender Charline Labonté
Charline Labonté
Charline Labonté is a women's ice hockey player. Labonté now lives in Montreal, and is studying Physical Education at McGill University.-Playing career:...
(women's ice hockey).
In 1996, the McGill Sports Hall of Fame
Hall of Fame
A hall of fame, wall of fame, walk of fame, walk of stars or avenue of stars is a type of attraction established for any field of endeavor to honor individuals of noteworthy achievement in that field...
was established to honour its best student athletes. Notable members of the Hall of Fame include James Naismith
James Naismith
The first game of "Basket Ball" was played in December 1891. In a handwritten report, Naismith described the circumstances of the inaugural match; in contrast to modern basketball, the players played nine versus nine, handled a soccer ball, not a basketball, and instead of shooting at two hoops,...
and Sydney Pierce
Sydney David Pierce
Sydney David Pierce was a Canadian Olympic hurdler and career diplomat. He was Canada's first Jewish ambassador....
.
A 2005 hazing
Hazing
Hazing is a term used to describe various ritual and other activities involving harassment, abuse or humiliation used as a way of initiating a person into a group....
scandal forced the cancellation of the final two games in the McGill Redmen football season. In 2006, McGill's Senate approved a proposed anti-hazing policy to define forbidden initiation practices.
Fight song
The McGill University song book, compiled by a committee of graduates and undergraduates, was published in Montreal by W.F. Brown, circa 1896.Notable among a number of songs commonly played and sung at various events such as commencement
Graduation
Graduation is the action of receiving or conferring an academic degree or the ceremony that is sometimes associated, where students become Graduates. Before the graduation, candidates are referred to as Graduands. The date of graduation is often called degree day. The graduation itself is also...
and convocation
Convocation
A Convocation is a group of people formally assembled for a special purpose.- University use :....
, and athletic games are:
- 'Alma Mater McGill,' with words by J. McDougall;
- 'L'Enfant du McGill,' with words by Louis-Honoré Fréchette, and music by Guillaume Couture;
- 'God Save McGill,' with words by W.M. Mackeracher, tune 'God Save the Queen';
- 'A Health to Old McGill,' with words by R.W. Huntingdon, and music by Mrs W.C. Baynes;
- 'McGill,' with words by C.W. Colby, sung to the tune 'The Gay Cavalier';
- 'McGill Revisited,' with words by John Cox,
- 'McGill Students' with words by W.N. Evans;
- 'The Student of McGill,' with words by R.D. McGibbon
Rivalries
McGill maintains an academic and athletic rivalry with Queen's UniversityQueen's University
Queen's University, , is a public research university located in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. Founded on 16 October 1841, the university pre-dates the founding of Canada by 26 years. Queen's holds more more than of land throughout Ontario as well as Herstmonceux Castle in East Sussex, England...
in Kingston
Kingston, Ontario
Kingston, Ontario is a Canadian city located in Eastern Ontario where the St. Lawrence River flows out of Lake Ontario. Originally a First Nations settlement called "Katarowki," , growing European exploration in the 17th Century made it an important trading post...
, Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
. Animosity between rowing athletes at the two schools has inspired an annual boat race between the two universities in the spring of each year since 1997, inspired by the famous Oxford-Cambridge Boat Race
The Boat Race
The event generally known as "The Boat Race" is a rowing race in England between the Oxford University Boat Club and the Cambridge University Boat Club, rowed between competing eights each spring on the River Thames in London. It takes place generally on the last Saturday of March or the first...
. The football rivalry, which started in 1884, ended after Canadian university athletic divisions were re-organized in 2000; the Ontario-Quebec Intercollegiate Football Conference was divided into Ontario University Athletics
Ontario University Athletics
Ontario University Athletics is a regional membership association for Canadian universities which assists in co-ordinating competition between their university level athletic programs and providing contact information, schedules, results, and releases about those programs and events to the public...
and Quebec Student Sports Federation
Quebec Student Sports Federation
The Réseau du sport étudiant du Québec formerly known as the Quebec Student Sports Federation is the governing body of primary and secondary school, collegiate and university sport in Quebec...
. The rivalry returned in 2002 when it transferred to the annual home-and-home hockey games between the two institutions. Queen's students refer to these matches as "Kill McGill" games, and usually show up in Montreal in atypically large numbers to cheer on the Queen's Golden Gaels
Queen's Golden Gaels
The Queen's Gaels are the athletic teams that represent Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. Team colours are blue, red, and gold. Its main home is Richardson Memorial Stadium on West Campus....
hockey team. In 2007, McGill students arrived in bus-loads to cheer on the McGill Redmen
McGill Redmen
The McGill Redmen CIS football team is one of the oldest in all of Canada, having begun organized competition in 1898. The team has appeared in three Vanier Cup national championships, in 1969, 1973 and 1987, with the Redmen finally winning the title in the 1987 game...
, occupying a third of Queen's Jock Harty Arena.
The school also competes in the annual "Old Four (IV)
Old Four
The Old Four is a soccer conference composed of four public institutions of higher education in Central Canada. The name is also an appellation for the four universities as a group, consisted of McGill University, Queen’s University, University of Toronto and University of Western Ontario. They are...
" soccer tournament, with Queen's University
Queen's University
Queen's University, , is a public research university located in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. Founded on 16 October 1841, the university pre-dates the founding of Canada by 26 years. Queen's holds more more than of land throughout Ontario as well as Herstmonceux Castle in East Sussex, England...
, the University of Toronto
University of Toronto
The University of Toronto is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, situated on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution of higher learning in Upper Canada...
and the University of Western Ontario
University of Western Ontario
The University of Western Ontario is a public research university located in London, Ontario, Canada. The university's main campus covers of land, with the Thames River cutting through the eastern portion of the main campus. Western administers its programs through 12 different faculties and...
.
McGill and Harvard also maintain their historical rivalry, represented by the biennial Harvard-McGill rugby games, alternately played in Montreal and Cambridge, MA. McGill is often regarded as being Canada's Harvard. This can also be seen when McGill is mentioned as "The Harvard of Canada" by Marge in The Simpsons
The Simpsons
The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...
, to which Lisa rebuffs. In addition, a popular student t-shirt sold at McGill spoofs this by displaying "Harvard - America's McGill".
McGill in fiction
In fiction, characters from movies and television shows have also been portrayed as McGill students, professors, or researchers. Fictional alumni from McGill include Lieutenant Alan McGregor, played by Gary CooperGary Cooper
Frank James Cooper, known professionally as Gary Cooper, was an American film actor. He was renowned for his quiet, understated acting style and his stoic, but at times intense screen persona, which was particularly well suited to the many Westerns he made...
in the movie Lives Of the Bengal Lancers
The Lives of a Bengal Lancer
The Lives of a Bengal Lancer is a 1935 American adventure film loosely adapted from the 1930 book of the same name by Francis Yeats-Brown. The plot of the movie, which bears little resemblance to Yeats-Brown's memoir, concerns British soldiers defending the borders of India against rebellious...
(1935), and Major Donald Craig, a Canadian commando serving with British special forces during World War II, portrayed by Rock Hudson
Rock Hudson
Roy Harold Scherer, Jr., later Roy Harold Fitzgerald , known professionally as Rock Hudson, was an American film and television actor, recognized as a romantic leading man during the 1950s and 1960s, most notably in several romantic comedies with Doris Day.Hudson was voted "Star of the Year",...
in the 1967 war movie Tobruk
Tobruk (film)
Tobruk is a 1967 American war film starring Rock Hudson and George Peppard and directed by Arthur Hiller. The film was written by Leo Gordon and released through Universal Pictures....
(though the film was loosely based on real events, it is not clear whether or not Hudson's character was based on a real person: most likely he was a pastiche
Pastiche
A pastiche is a literary or other artistic genre or technique that is a "hodge-podge" or imitation. The word is also a linguistic term used to describe an early stage in the development of a pidgin language.-Hodge-podge:...
character, given a Canadian background as cover for Hudson's inability to emulate a British accent). In the Fox Network television drama House
House (TV series)
House is an American television medical drama that debuted on the Fox network on November 16, 2004. The show's central character is Dr. Gregory House , an unconventional and misanthropic medical genius who heads a team of diagnosticians at the fictional Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital in...
, James Wilson
James Wilson (House)
James Evan Wilson, M.D., is a fictional character on the Fox medical drama House. He is played by Robert Sean Leonard. The character first appears in the show's pilot episode when he introduces a medical case to Dr. Gregory House, the protagonist of the show. Wilson is Dr. House's only true friend,...
, an oncologist at the Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital is also a McGill alumnus. Walter Langkowski
Sasquatch (comics)
Sasquatch is a fictional character, a superhero in Marvel Comics' universe. He first appeared in Uncanny X-Men #120 and was created by John Byrne.-Fictional character biography:Dr...
, a researcher from the Marvel Comics Canadian superhero series Alpha Flight
Alpha Flight
Alpha Flight is a fictional superhero team published by Marvel Comics, noteworthy for being one of the few Canadian superhero teams. Created by John Byrne, the team first appeared in Uncanny X-Men #120 ....
, is portrayed as a McGill-based biophysicist
Biophysics
Biophysics is an interdisciplinary science that uses the methods of physical science to study biological systems. Studies included under the branches of biophysics span all levels of biological organization, from the molecular scale to whole organisms and ecosystems...
researching the gamma radiation
Gamma ray
Gamma radiation, also known as gamma rays or hyphenated as gamma-rays and denoted as γ, is electromagnetic radiation of high frequency . Gamma rays are usually naturally produced on Earth by decay of high energy states in atomic nuclei...
accident which created the Hulk
Hulk (comics)
The Hulk is a fictional character, a superhero in the . Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, the character first appeared in The Incredible Hulk #1 ....
. Langkowski's discoveries transformed him into the superhero
Superhero
A superhero is a type of stock character, possessing "extraordinary or superhuman powers", dedicated to protecting the public. Since the debut of the prototypical superhero Superman in 1938, stories of superheroes — ranging from brief episodic adventures to continuing years-long sagas —...
known as Sasquatch
Sasquatch (comics)
Sasquatch is a fictional character, a superhero in Marvel Comics' universe. He first appeared in Uncanny X-Men #120 and was created by John Byrne.-Fictional character biography:Dr...
. McGill is also referenced in several of Kathy Reichs
Kathy Reichs
Kathleen Joan Toelle "Kathy" Reichs is an American crime writer, forensic anthropologist and academic . She is a professor of anthropology at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, but is currently on indefinite leave...
' Temperance Brennan novels.
Historical links
- The University of GlasgowUniversity of GlasgowThe University of Glasgow is the fourth-oldest university in the English-speaking world and one of Scotland's four ancient universities. Located in Glasgow, the university was founded in 1451 and is presently one of seventeen British higher education institutions ranked amongst the top 100 of the...
, one of four ancient Scottish universitiesAncient universities of ScotlandThe ancient universities of Scotland are medieval and renaissance universities which continue to exist until the present day. The majority of the ancient universities of the British Isles are located within Scotland, and have a number of distinctive features in common, being governed by a series of...
and member of the British Russell GroupRussell GroupThe Russell Group is a collaboration of twenty UK universities that together receive two-thirds of research grant and contract funding in the United Kingdom. It was established in 1994 to represent their interests to the government, parliament and other similar bodies...
. Founded in 1451, the original benefactor of McGill College, James McGill, studied here in the 1750s before his family worked as merchants in the city. The two universities continue this link today as part of Universitas 21Universitas 21Universitas 21 is an international network of universities, established as an "international reference point and resource for strategic thinking on issues of global significance." Together, there are 500,000 students and 40,000 academics and researchers associated with these universities, which...
, an international student exchange programme. - The University of EdinburghUniversity of EdinburghThe University of Edinburgh, founded in 1583, is a public research university located in Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The university is deeply embedded in the fabric of the city, with many of the buildings in the historic Old Town belonging to the university...
, one of four ancient Scottish universitiesAncient universities of ScotlandThe ancient universities of Scotland are medieval and renaissance universities which continue to exist until the present day. The majority of the ancient universities of the British Isles are located within Scotland, and have a number of distinctive features in common, being governed by a series of...
and member of the British Russell GroupRussell GroupThe Russell Group is a collaboration of twenty UK universities that together receive two-thirds of research grant and contract funding in the United Kingdom. It was established in 1994 to represent their interests to the government, parliament and other similar bodies...
. The University was founded as a civic institution in 1583 and has maintained a strong reputation in the study of medicine, among other disciplines. McGill's first (and, for several years, its only) faculty, Medicine, was founded by four physicians/surgeons who had trained in Edinburgh. In common with Glasgow, Edinburgh shares an international exchange link with McGill through Universitas 21Universitas 21Universitas 21 is an international network of universities, established as an "international reference point and resource for strategic thinking on issues of global significance." Together, there are 500,000 students and 40,000 academics and researchers associated with these universities, which...
.
Finances
As a public university, McGill is not as dependent on its endowment for operating revenue as some of its international peers. The McGill endowment only provides approximately 10 per cent of the school's annual operating revenues. Nonetheless, McGill's endowment rests within the top 10 percent of all North American post-secondary institutions' endowments. While McGill's conservative investment policy has protected it from the more substantial losses experienced at many other universities during the market crisis of 2008–2009, it still faced a 20% endowment decline from approximately $920 million to $740 million. Valued at $21,633 per student, the university maintains one of the largest endowments among Canadian universities on a per-student basis.In an open letter to faculty and students, Heather Munroe-Blum wrote:
"The next few years do not promise to be easy. But in facing this challenge, McGill has a unique advantage in addition to that of the fundamental progress we have made. This university has lived with restricted resources and uncertainty for almost two hundred years – it is part of our culture. And yet, against this backdrop of hardship, we have always retained our commitment to excellence. We are one of the world’s great universities. This will not change. In my installation speech in the spring of 2003, I said McGill “punches above its weight.” We will continue to do so. In order to stay the course, we must now move with confidence, pride, excitement and discipline to seize every opportunity to put McGill in an ideal position to leap forward with the inevitable recovery."
Campaign McGill
Campaign McGill: History in the Making is a five-year comprehensive campaign that began in October 2007, with the goal of raising over $750 million for the purpose of further "attracting and retaining top talent in Quebec, to increase access to quality education and to further enhance McGill's ability to address critical global problems." The largest goal of any Canadian university fundraising campaign in history, within the first six months, McGill had accumulated over $400 million towards its efforts.Support to McGill’s annual fund has actually increased during the market crisis. According to Principal Heather Munroe-Blum, she is confident that Campaign McGill will reach its $750 million goal by 2012.
Tuition
Tuition feesTuition
Tuition payments, known primarily as tuition in American English and as tuition fees in British English, Canadian English, Australian English, New Zealand English and Indian English, refers to a fee charged for educational instruction during higher education.Tuition payments are charged by...
vary significantly between in-province
Province
A province is a territorial unit, almost always an administrative division, within a country or state.-Etymology:The English word "province" is attested since about 1330 and derives from the 13th-century Old French "province," which itself comes from the Latin word "provincia," which referred to...
, out-of-province, and international students, with full-time Quebec students paying around $2,167.80 per year, Canadian students from other provinces paying around $5,858.10 per year, and international
Canadian nationality law
Canadian citizenship is typically obtained by birth in Canada, birth abroad when at least one parent is a Canadian citizen and was born or naturalized in Canada, or by adoption abroad by at least one Canadian citizen. It can also be granted to a permanent resident who lives in Canada for three out...
students paying $14,461.80–$24,840 per year. Students must also pay housing costs, though Montreal has some of the least expensive housing among large North American cities.
Since 1996, McGill, in accordance with the Ministère de l'Éducation, du Loisir et du Sport (MELS), has had eight categories that qualifies certain international students to be excused from paying international fees. These categories include: students from France, a quota of students from select countries which have agreements with MELS, which include Algeria
Algeria
Algeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria , also formally referred to as the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of Northwest Africa with Algiers as its capital.In terms of land area, it is the largest country in Africa and the Arab...
, China, and Morocco
Morocco
Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...
, students holding diplomatic status, including their dependents, and students enrolled in certain language programs leading to a degree in French.
Scholarships and financial aid
Scholarships at McGill are relatively difficult to attain, compared to other Canadian universities. This is predominantly due to the number of high academic achievers at the school. For out-of-province first year undergraduate students, a high school average of 95% is required to receive a guaranteed one-year entrance scholarship. To be considered for the same scholarships, Quebec CEGEP students need a minimum r-score of 35.5, United States high school students need a minimum A average as well as at least 700 in each SAT or 33 in the ACT, and French Baccalaureate students need an average of 15.5 plus a minimum score of 14 in each course; similarly, students in the British education system need As in both GCSE Level and predicted Advanced Level results, and International Baccalaureate students need to attain a minimum overall average of 6.9 on predicted grades or a score of 42 on exam results. In general, entrance scholarship recipients rank in the top 1–2% of their class.For renewal of previously earned scholarships, students generally need to be within the top 10% of their faculty. For in-course scholarships in particular, students must be within the top 5% of their faculty. McGill itself outlines scholarship considerations as follows: "Competition for basic and major scholarships is intense at McGill. An extraordinary number of exceptional applications are received each year and therefore we cannot award scholarships to all good candidates."
The university has joined Project Hero, a scholarship program cofounded by General (Ret'd) Rick Hillier
Rick Hillier
General Rick Hillier, CMM, MSC, CD , is the former Chief of the Defence Staff of the Canadian Forces. He held this appointment from February 4, 2005 to July 1, 2008. He retired on July 1, 2008, and was replaced by former Vice-Chief of the Defence Staff Walter Natynczyk...
for the families of fallen Canadian Forces
Canadian Forces
The Canadian Forces , officially the Canadian Armed Forces , are the unified armed forces of Canada, as constituted by the National Defence Act, which states: "The Canadian Forces are the armed forces of Her Majesty raised by Canada and consist of one Service called the Canadian Armed Forces."...
members.
Notable people
In the arts, McGill students include three Pulitzer Prize
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...
winners, Templeton Prize
Templeton Prize
The Templeton Prize is an annual award presented by the Templeton Foundation. Established in 1972, it is awarded to a living person who, in the estimation of the judges, "has made an exceptional contribution to affirming life's spiritual dimension, whether through insight, discovery, or practical...
winner Charles Taylor
Charles Taylor (philosopher)
Charles Margrave Taylor, is a Canadian philosopher from Montreal, Quebec best known for his contributions in political philosophy, the philosophy of social science, and in the history of philosophy. His contributions to these fields have earned him both the prestigious Kyoto Prize and the...
, essayist and novelist John Ralston Saul
John Ralston Saul
John Ralston Saul, CC is a Canadian author, essayist, and President of International PEN.As an essayist, Saul is particularly known for his commentaries on the nature of individualism, citizenship and the public good; the failures of manager-, or more precisely technocrat-, led societies; the...
, a Companion of the Order of Canada along with Charles Taylor, Juno Award
Juno Award
The Juno Awards are presented annually to Canadian musical artists and bands to acknowledge their artistic and technical achievements in all aspects of music...
winner Sam Roberts
Sam Roberts
Sam Roberts is a Juno Award-winning Canadian rock singer-songwriter, whose 2001 debut release, The Inhuman Condition, became one of the bestselling independent releases in Quebec and Canadian music history.-Life and career:...
, Singer-Songwriter Prita Chhabra and William Shatner
William Shatner
William Alan Shatner is a Canadian actor, musician, recording artist, and author. He gained worldwide fame and became a cultural icon for his portrayal of James T...
, best known for his portrayal of Captain Kirk
James T. Kirk
James Tiberius "Jim" Kirk is a character in the Star Trek media franchise. Kirk was first played by William Shatner as the principal lead character in the original Star Trek series. Shatner voiced Kirk in the animated Star Trek series and appeared in the first seven Star Trek movies...
on Star Trek
Star Trek
Star Trek is an American science fiction entertainment franchise created by Gene Roddenberry. The core of Star Trek is its six television series: The Original Series, The Animated Series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise...
and winner of several Emmy Awards. Nine Academy Award winners studied at McGill. Billboard
Billboard charts
The Billboard charts tabulate the relative weekly popularity of songs or albums in the United States. The results are published in Billboard magazine...
charting musician and vocalist Mary Fahl
Mary Fahl
Mary Fahl is an American singer, songwriter and actress known for her work with October Project in the mid-1990s. More recently she is known for her solo singing and acting career. She released an EP Lenses of Contact in 2001, and a full album The Other Side of Time in 2003 on Sony Classical...
also attended McGill University.
In the sciences, students include doctors, inventors, three astronauts and scientist Dr. Mark J. Poznansky, a member of the Order of Canada. On October 16, 2009, the 42nd American president, Bill Clinton accepted an Honorary Doctorate from McGill University.
Some politicians and government officials both within Canada and abroad are McGill alumni, including two Canadian prime ministers
Prime Minister of Canada
The Prime Minister of Canada is the primary minister of the Crown, chairman of the Cabinet, and thus head of government for Canada, charged with advising the Canadian monarch or viceroy on the exercise of the executive powers vested in them by the constitution...
and eleven justices of the Supreme Court of Canada
Supreme Court of Canada
The Supreme Court of Canada is the highest court of Canada and is the final court of appeals in the Canadian justice system. The court grants permission to between 40 and 75 litigants each year to appeal decisions rendered by provincial, territorial and federal appellate courts, and its decisions...
. PC MP Robert Layton
Robert Layton
Robert Edward John "Bob" Layton, PC was a Canadian politician.-Early career:Robert Layton was born in Montreal, the son of Norah Lestelle and former Quebec cabinet minister Gilbert Layton. He graduated from McGill University in 1947...
and Leader of NDP party, Jack Layton (son of Robert) also attended McGill. Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga
Vaira Vike-Freiberga
Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga was the sixth President of Latvia, the first female President of Latvia and the first female leader in eastern Europe. She was elected President of Latvia in 1999 and re-elected in 2003.Dr...
completed her Ph.D. at McGill and was elected as president of the Republic of Latvia in 1999 as the first female president in Eastern Europe after Turkey's Tansu Çiller
Tansu Çiller
Tansu Penbe Çiller is a Turkish economist and politician. She was Turkey's first and only female Prime Minister.- Early career :She is the daughter of a Turkish governor of Bilecik province during the 1950s. She graduated from the School of Economics at Robert College after finishing the American...
. Ahmed Nazif
Ahmed Nazif
Ahmed Nazif served as the Prime Minister of Egypt from 14 July 2004 to 29 January 2011, when his cabinet was dismissed by President Hosni Mubarak in light of a popular uprising that led to the Egyptian Revolution of 2011...
also completed a Ph.D. at McGill in 1983 and has served as the youngest prime minister
Prime minister
A prime minister is the most senior minister of cabinet in the executive branch of government in a parliamentary system. In many systems, the prime minister selects and may dismiss other members of the cabinet, and allocates posts to members within the government. In most systems, the prime...
of Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
since the republic's founding 1953. In the 2011 Canadian election, five McGill students—undergraduates Charmaine Borg
Charmaine Borg
Charmaine Borg is the New Democratic Party Member of Parliament for the riding of Terrebonne—Blainville in Quebec, having been first elected in the 2011 Canadian federal election. She defeated incumbent MP Diane Bourgeois of the Bloc Québécois.A Montreal resident, Borg was born in Keswick,...
, Matthew Dubé, Mylène Freeman
Mylène Freeman
Mylène Freeman is the New Democratic Party Member of Parliament for the riding of Argenteuil—Papineau—Mirabel in Quebec, first elected in the 2011 Canadian federal election after defeating incumbent MP Mario Laframboise of the Bloc Québécois.Born in Stouffville, Ontario, she is fluent in both...
(graduating shortly after the election) and Laurin Liu plus graduate student Jamie Nicholls—were elected as NDP MPs.
Corporate leaders and media personalities have also studied at McGill. Leading Canadian philanthropist and entrepreneur Seymour Schulich
Seymour Schulich
Seymour Schulich, CM is a Canadian businessman and philanthropist. -Biography:Schulich graduated from McGill University with a B.Sc. in 1961 and an MBA in 1965. He earned a Chartered Financial Analyst designation through the University of Virginia in 1969.He is married to Tanna and they live in...
donated $20 million, the highest donation to any music school in Canada, to the newly-named Schulich School of Music
Schulich School of Music
The Schulich School of Music is one of the constituent faculties of McGill University in Montréal, Canada. The faculty was named after benefactor Seymour Schulich.-History:Music at McGill – The Beginning...
. Henry Mintzberg
Henry Mintzberg
Professor Henry Mintzberg, is an internationally renowned academic and author on business and management. He is currently the Cleghorn Professor of Management Studies at the Desautels Faculty of Management of McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, where he has been teaching since...
, a professor at McGill's Desautels Faculty of Management
Desautels Faculty of Management
The Desautels Faculty of Management is one of the constituent faculties of McGill University. The Faculty has been host to the McGill Management International Case Competition since 2001...
is an acclaimed management thinker and contributes to The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
and The Economist
The Economist
The Economist is an English-language weekly news and international affairs publication owned by The Economist Newspaper Ltd. and edited in offices in the City of Westminster, London, England. Continuous publication began under founder James Wilson in September 1843...
. Mintzberg is an Officer of the Order of Canada. Co-founder and president of Matrox Electronic Systems Ltd.
Matrox
Matrox is a producer of video card components and equipment for personal computers. Based in Dorval, Quebec, Canada it was founded by Lorne Trottier and Branko Matić....
, which innovates globally in graphics, video editing, and image processing, Lorne Trottier
Lorne Trottier
Lorne M. Trottier, CM is a co-founder of Matrox, a computer corporation that specializes in computer graphics.Born in Montreal, Quebec, Trottier graduated from Baron Byng High School and thereafter received a Bachelor of Engineering in Electrical Engineering in 1970 and a Masters of Engineering in...
has donated $10 million towards services in information and technology at McGill. The new engineering building is called Trottier, named after Lorne Trottier. Conrad Black
Conrad Black
Conrad Moffat Black, Baron Black of Crossharbour, OC, KCSG, PC is a Canadian-born member of the British House of Lords, and a historian, columnist and publisher, who was for a time the third largest newspaper magnate in the world. Lord Black controlled Hollinger International, Inc...
, a major media magnate and convicted fraudster, also studied at McGill.
McGill students are also recognized as athletes, including various members of Canadian national teams and twenty-eight Olympic
Olympic Games
The Olympic Games is a major international event featuring summer and winter sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The Olympic Games have come to be regarded as the world’s foremost sports competition where more than 200 nations participate...
medalists. Since the Olympics began, McGill has produced 112 Olympians who have won a total of eight gold medals, nine silver, and eleven bronze.
Jacob Viner
Jacob Viner
Jacob Viner was a Canadian economist and is considered with Frank Knight and Henry Simons one of the "inspiring" mentors of the early Chicago School of Economics in the 1930s: he was one of the leading figures of the Chicago faculty.- Biography :Viner was born in 1892 in Montreal, Quebec to...
, who would later go on to form the beginnings of the modern day Chicago School of Economics, earned his undergraduate degree from McGill. William Osler
William Osler
Sir William Osler, 1st Baronet was a physician. He was one of the "Big Four" founding professors at Johns Hopkins Hospital as the first Professor of Medicine and founder of the Medical Service there. Sir William Osler, 1st Baronet (July 12, 1849 – December 29, 1919) was a physician. He was...
, one of the founders of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine , located in Baltimore, Maryland, U.S., is the academic medical teaching and research arm of Johns Hopkins University. Hopkins has consistently been the nation's number one medical school in the amount of competitive research grants awarded by the National...
, and the originator of the concept of medical residency
Residency (medicine)
Residency is a stage of graduate medical training. A resident physician or resident is a person who has received a medical degree , Podiatric degree , Dental Degree and who practices...
, received his medical degree from McGill.
Professors at McGill have won 26 Prix du Québec
Prix du Québec
The Prix du Québec are awards given by the Government of Quebec to individuals for cultural and scientific achievements. Founded in 1977, the government annually awards six awards in the cultural field and five in the scientific field.- Cultural awards :...
, 14 Prix de l'Association francophone pour le savoir
Acfas
Association francophone pour le savoir is the principal French-language learned society in Canada and, particularly, Quebec.The Acfas was founded in 1923 as the Association canadienne-française pour l'avancement des sciences . Its name was changed in 2001 to the Association francophone pour le...
and 21 Killam Prizes
Isaak-Walton-Killam Award
The Izaak-Walton-Killam Award was established according to the last wishes of Dorothy J. Killam to honour the memory of her husband Izaak Walton Killam....
. Eleven Nobel Laureates have studied or taught at McGill.
Since 1902, Canadian undergraduate students have been eligible for Rhodes Scholarships to study at the University of Oxford
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...
. More than any other university, McGill students have won 132 Rhodes Scholarships. These students include parliamentary and cabinet ministers David Lewis
David Lewis (politician)
David Lewis, CC was a Russian-born Canadian labour lawyer and social democratic politician. He was national secretary of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation from 1936 to 1950, and one of the key architects of the New Democratic Party in 1961...
(1932), Alastair Gillespie
Alastair Gillespie
Alastair William Gillespie, PC, OC is a former Canadian politician.Born in Victoria, British Columbia, Gillespie attended Brentwood College School, McGill University and then Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar. After receiving a business degree from the University of Toronto, he went on to...
(1947), and Marcel Massé
Marcel Massé
Marcel Massé, PC, OC, QC is a former Canadian politician and civil servant.He served as Clerk of the Privy Council in 1979 during the government of Prime Minister Joe Clark...
(1963), the political philosopher Charles Taylor
Charles Taylor (philosopher)
Charles Margrave Taylor, is a Canadian philosopher from Montreal, Quebec best known for his contributions in political philosophy, the philosophy of social science, and in the history of philosophy. His contributions to these fields have earned him both the prestigious Kyoto Prize and the...
(1952), and the U.S. political advisor and inventor Jack Phillips (1978).
See also
- List of Canadian universities by endowment
- List of oldest universities in continuous operation
- List of colleges and universities named after people
- Canadian Interuniversity SportCanadian Interuniversity SportCanadian Interuniversity Sport is the national governing body of university sport in Canada, comprising the majority of degree granting universities in the country. Its equivalent body for organized sports at colleges in Canada is The Canadian Colleges Athletic Association...
- Canadian government scientific research organizationsCanadian government scientific research organizationsExpenditures by federal and provincial organizations on scientific research and development accounted for about 10% of all such spending in Canada in 2006...
- Canadian university scientific research organizationsCanadian university scientific research organizationsExpenditures by Canadian universities on scientific research and development accounted for about 40% of all spending on scientific research and development in Canada in 2006....
- Canadian industrial research and development organizationsCanadian industrial research and development organizationsExpenditures by Canadian corporations on research and development accounted for about 50% of all spending on scientific research and development in Canada in 2007....
Departments and publications
- McGill College AvenueMcGill College AvenueMcGill College Avenue is a street in downtown Montreal, Quebec, Canada.Named for McGill University, the street was widened in the 1980s and transformed into a scenic avenue with McGill's Roddick Gates on Sherbrooke Street at its north end and the Place Ville Marie plaza at its south end...
- McGill Journal of MedicineMcGill Journal of MedicineThe McGill Journal of Medicine is a peer-reviewed medical journal entirely run by medical students. Its executive members consist mainly of second-year students at McGill University...
- McGill's Redpath MuseumRedpath MuseumThe Redpath Museum is a museum of natural history belonging to McGill University and located on the university's campus at 859 Sherbrooke Street West in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It was built in 1882 as a gift from the sugar baron Peter Redpath. It houses collections of interest to ethnology,...
- McGill Science Undergraduate Research Journal
- McGill University Faculty of MedicineMcGill University Faculty of MedicineThe Faculty of Medicine is one of the constituent faculties of McGill University. It was established in 1823 as the Montreal Medical Institution, and became the first faculty of McGill College in 1829; it was the first medical faculty to be established in Canada....
- McGill University LibraryMcGill University LibraryMcGill University Library is the library system of McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It comprises 13 branch libraries, located on the downtown Montreal and Macdonald campuses, holding over 6 million items...
- McGill University ArchivesMcGill University ArchivesThe McGill University Archives performs integrated archival and records management for McGill University. and is housed in the McLennan Library Building....
- McGill University School of Architecture
- Osler Library of the History of MedicineOsler Library of the History of MedicineThe Osler Library, a branch of the McGill University Library, is Canada's foremost scholarly resource in the history of medicine, and one of the most important libraries of its type in North America...
- Schulich School of MusicSchulich School of MusicThe Schulich School of Music is one of the constituent faculties of McGill University in Montréal, Canada. The faculty was named after benefactor Seymour Schulich.-History:Music at McGill – The Beginning...
of McGill University - McGill School of Information Studies
- Montreal LaboratoryMontreal LaboratoryThe Montreal Laboratory in Montreal, Quebec, Canada was established by the National Research Council of Canada to undertake nuclear research, and to take over some of the scientists and projects from the Tube Alloys nuclear project in Britain...
(for nuclear research, World War II)
Further reading
- Axelrod, Paul. "McGill University on the Landscape of Canadian Higher Education: Historical Reflections." Higher Education Perspectives 1 (1996–97).
- Coleman, Brian. "McGill, British Columbia." McGill Journal of Education 6, no. 2 (Autumn 1976).
- Collard, Andrew. The McGill You Knew: An Anthology of Memories, 1920–1960. Toronto: Longman Canada, 1975.
- Frost, Stanley B. The History of McGill in Relation to the Social, Economic and Cultural Aspects of Montreal and Quebec (Montreal: McGill University. 1979).
- Frost, Stanley B. McGill University: For the Advancement of Learning. Vol I. (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press © 1980) ISBN 9780773503533
- Frost, Stanley B. McGill University: For the Advancement of Learning. Vol II.(Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press 1984) ISBN 9780773504226
- Gillett, Margaret. We Walked Very Warily: A History of Women at McGill. Montreal: Eden Press, 1981.
- Markell, H. Keith The Faculty of Religious Studies, McGill University, 1948–1978 (Montreal: Faculty of Religious Studies, 1979)
- McNally, Peter F. McGill University: For the Advancement of Learning (1970–2002)' Vol III (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press Not yet published.)
- Young, Brian J. The Making and Unmaking of a University Museum: The McCord, 1921–1996 McGill-Queen's University Press 2000. ISBN 9780773520493