Toronto, September 11th, 2012 - Corporate Knights has released its 2012 Annual Knight Schools Survey, ranking how Canadian universities are faring at integrating sustainability into the school experience. 

The assessment, now in its ninth year, scored Canadian MBA programs, along with undergraduate Engineering programs in the areas of institutional support, student initiatives and course work.

MBA Programs

The Schulich School of Business at York University earned the top MBA mark of 86 per cent, receiving a high grade in all three evaluated categories. This marks a nine-year reign on top of the rankings for Schulich. Other notable performers included the Master of Environment and Business program at the University of Waterloo, along with the John Molson School of Business at Concordia.

Notes Jeremy Runnalls, Managing Editor of Corporate Knights, "The results show how polarized business programs remain on the subject of sustainability. Only six MBA programs received a grade above 50 per cent, and these schools were located in four different provinces, showing no regional superiority." 

Engineering Programs

The University of Toronto led the undergraduate engineering ranking, receiving the top grade of 72 per cent, powered by a perfect grade in the student participation section and a 96 per cent score for institutional support. The University of Western Ontario, along with L'Université Laval also ranked highly in the survey.

Yet despite these top performers, only 20 per cent of the programs surveyed received a passing grade. The main culprit, says Knight Schools project lead Jeremy Runnalls, remains the lack of integration of sustainability themes into core courses.

"The increasing levels of student participation, along with significant numbers of professors engaged in environmental or social research initiatives without corresponding classroom opportunities shows that MBA schools are ripe for reform."

The full methodology and analysis of the 2012 Knight Schools Survey is detailed at www.corporateknights.com/knightschools, and summarized in the Summer 2012 issue of Corporate Knights, found as an insert in the Globe and Mail on September 17th.