McGill University (or simply McGill) is a public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It bears the name of James McGill, a prominent Montreal merchant from Scotland, whose bequest formed the beginning of the university. Founded in 1821, McGill is one of the oldest universities in Canada, chartered during the British colonial era, 46 years before Canadian Confederation. Having shifted from a private institution to a public institution, McGill has evolved during its history, especially in the area of anglophone–francophone relations.
The university’s main campus is set upon 32 hectares (80 acres) at the foot of Mount Royal in Downtown Montreal. A second campus, the Macdonald Campus, is situated on 6.5 square kilometres (1,600 acres) of fields and forested land in Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue, 30 kilometres 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. Over 34,000 students attend McGill, with international students comprising one-fifth of the student population.
McGill is recognized for its award-winning research and participates in research organizations both within Canada and in the world, including the G13, the Association of American Universities, and Universitas 21. Its undergraduate, graduate, and professional schools consistently ranks the top university in national rankings such as those published by Maclean’s, and among the top 50 universities in regional and worldwide rankings, including the Times Higher Education (THE) – QS World University Rankings and Shanghai Jiao Tong University’s Academic Ranking of World Universities. With around 200,000 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 six Nobel Laureates(out of eight Nobel Laureates affiliated with the university), three astronauts, two Canadian prime ministers, four justices of the Canadian Supreme Court, three foreign leaders, nine Academy Award winners, three Pulitzer Prize winners, and twenty-five Olympic medalists. A nation-leading 130 students have also won Rhodes Scholarships to pursue graduate studies at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. (more…)