The University of Victoria has finished first in the comprehensive category in Maclean’s University Rankings for the first time since 2008.

The school pushed Simon Fraser to second spot among 15 universities with a significant amount of research and a wide range of graduate and undergraduate programs, but no medical school.

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The University of Waterloo remained in third spot.

“This category is always a horse race,” said Maclean’s senior editor Mary Dwyer.

UVic took the top spot in 2007 and tied with SFU for first in 2008.

Reeta Tremblay, UVic’s vice-president academic and provost, said the rankings reaffirm the quality of work being done at the university.

“Fundamentally, it’s really a testament to our faculty and students and staff,” she said. “But you have to keep rankings in perspective.”

Tremblay noted that many of Canada’s universities are facing financial challenges, which are starting to have an impact on international rankings.

The University of Victoria recently dropped out of the top 200 in world university rankings released by British-based Times Higher Education.

“The southeast Asian schools have done extremely well … where there’s a huge amount of money being put into higher education,” Tremblay said.

“Even in international rankings, our scores have not gone down; our scores have actually improved. But other universities have kind of come up [the ranks].”

UVic finished second and third on key indicators such as faculty awards, total research dollars, scholarships and library investments.

“UVic is very strong on faculty awards and the amount of research money coming into the university,” Dwyer said.

“They also came ahead on spending on library expenses and acquisitions … and percentage of their operating budget spending on scholarships and bursaries.”

In the medical doctoral category, Montreal’s McGill University took first place for the ninth consecutive year.

In the primarily undergraduate category, Mount Allison University, in Sackville, N.B., took the top spot.

This is the 23rd year of the Maclean’s rankings, which include a magazine guide highlighting entrance requirements, scholarship and campus life.