. McMaster is a publicly funded research university, and a member of the
Universities Canada. McMaster functions on a semester system, operating year-round on academic semesters, fall/winter and spring/summer. In the 2023–2024 academic year, the university had an enrolment of 37,592 students; 32,105 undergraduate students, 5,487 graduate students. In 2022–2023, McMaster students received approximately C$145.8 million in
Ontario Student Assistance Program aid (loans C$88.2 million, grants C$57.6 million). In 2023–2024, students received C$13.7 million in bursaries.
McMaster Model The McMaster Model is the university's policy for a student-centred, problem-based, interdisciplinary approach to learning. During the 1960s the
McMaster University Medical School pioneered
problem-based learning (PBL) tutorials that have since been adopted by other fields in the Faculty of Health Science, as well as other faculties and programs in the university. The PBL tutorial model has since been adopted into the curriculums of other medical schools in Canada, and more than 80 per cent of medical schools in the United States. In 1991, McMaster's
School of Medicine adopted
progress testing, developing the personal progress index (PPI), a system based on progress testing invented concurrently by the
University of Missouri-Kansas City's medical school and the
Maastricht University. The PPI is used as an objective method for assessing acquisition and retention of knowledge for students in the medical program. The PPI is administered at regular intervals to all students in the program, regardless of their level of training, and plots students' scores as they move through the program. Students typically score 20 per cent on their first examination, and increase by five to seven per cent with each successive examination.
Rankings and reputation McMaster University has placed in post-secondary school rankings. In the 2024
Academic Ranking of World Universities rankings, the university ranked 101-150th in the world and 4-5th in Canada. The 2025
QS World University Rankings ranked the university 173th in the world and 8th in Canada. In ''
Maclean's'' 2025 rankings, McMaster placed fourth in their Medical-Doctoral university category, and fifth in their reputation survey for Canadian universities. McMaster was ranked in spite of having opted out from participation in Maclean's graduate survey since 2006. McMaster also placed in a number of rankings that evaluated the employment prospects of graduates. In
QSs 2022 graduate employability ranking, the university ranked 81st in the world, and fourth in Canada. As of 2024, several of McMaster's health science areas rank in the Top 5 in Canada and Top 100 globally, including Clinical Medicine (2nd in Canada and 17th globally) and Endocrinology and Metabolism (2nd in Canada and 36th globally).
Research .|alt=Exterior front entrance of the Michael G. DeGroote Centre for Learning and Discovery blooming inside the McMaster Biology Greenhouse, one of many facilities used for research at the university In 2018, Research Infosource named McMaster as the most research intensive university in the country with an average sponsored research income (external sources of funding) of C$434,700 per faculty member in 2017, the highest average in the country, and nearly double the average for universities in the "Medical-Doctoral" category. In the same year, graduate students averaged a sponsored research income of $82,800, the highest out of any full-service university. In the 2015–2016 academic year, the federal government was the largest source of McMaster's sponsored research income (excluding affiliated hospitals), providing 61.4 per cent of McMaster's research budget, primarily through grants. Corporate research income account for 7.3 per cent of the overall research budget. The
University Ranking by Academic Performance 2018–19 rankings placed the university 126th in the world, and sixth in Canada. McMaster has received accolades for its research strengths, particularly in the field of health sciences. The Faculty of Health Science oversees $130 million a year in research, much of it conducted by scientists and physicians who teach in the medical school. The university also operates a brain bank, whose collection includes a portion of
Albert Einstein's brain, preserved and held for medical research. Researchers there have identified differences in his brain that may relate to his genius for spatial and mathematical thinking. In addition to traditional forms of research, members of Faculty of Health Sciences have also been credited with developments within the medical practice. A McMaster research group led by
David Sackett and later
Gordon Guyatt had been credited for establishing the methodologies used in
evidence-based medicine. Research institutes operated by the Faculty of Health Science include the
Firestone Institute for Respiratory Health, and the
Population Health Research Institute. The faculty also operates a
Biosafety Level 3 laboratory. Other research institutes operated by the university include the
Origins Institute, the
McMaster Manufacturing Research Institute, and the Brockhouse Institute for Materials Research (BIMR). BIMR was created in 1960 by
Howard Petch, the institute was named after McMaster alumnus
Bertram Brockhouse. The BIMR is an interdisciplinary research organization with the mandate to develop, support, and co-ordinate all materials research related activities at McMaster. Its membership of 123 faculty members is drawn from 13 departments in the Faculties of Science, Engineering, and Health Sciences, as well as several Canadian and international universities. The Canadian Centre for Electron Microscopy is home to the world's most powerful
electron microscope; the Titan 80–300 cubed microscope has a magnification of 14 million and is used for material, medical, and
nanotechnology research. The Biology Greenhouse holds 217 plants in a facility, and is used as a teaching and research facility by the Department of Biology. In addition to maintaining its permanent collection, the Biology Greenhouse also grows plants for both short-term research studies. In 2024, a new 1,060-square-metre (11,400 sq ft) greenhouse, housing over 200 plant species, was opened to replace the Biology Greenhouse. is the largest research reactor in the
Commonwealth of Nations. In addition, the university also operates the
McMaster Nuclear Reactor, used for nuclear science and engineering research since 1959. The
swimming pool reactor is used for research, educational, and commercial applications such as neutron radiography, and medical radioisotope production; including 60 per cent of the world's supply of
iodine-125, an isotope used in
nuclear medicine to treat prostate cancer. The production of
molybdenum-99 has occasionally been moved to the university's reactor, when production at the
National Research Universal reactor was temporarily halted. The strength of nuclear science at McMaster was augmented in 1968 under the presidency of Dr.
H.G. Thode by the construction of a 10MV Model FN Tandem
particle accelerator. The 3MV Model KN single-ended accelerator was added the same year. The academic direction of the laboratory fell to the Physics Department in the early days, as it was primarily a nuclear structure laboratory. During the next 28 years, the nuclear research effort was extensive, with hundreds of graduate students trained and many publications generated.
Admissions The requirements for admission differ between students from Ontario, other provinces in Canada, and international students due to the lack of uniformity in marking schemes. The acceptance rate at McMaster for full-time, first-year undergraduate applications in 2024 was approximately 59 percent. The university received 47,544 applicants in 2023. However, students entering McMaster's more selective undergraduate programs, including the Honours Health Sciences Program, Integrated Sciences, and Arts and Science programs, tend to have higher averages. In 2016,
Yahoo! Finance named the university's Health Sciences program the toughest Canadian undergraduate program to gain admission to, with an acceptance rate of 4.5 per cent out of an average of 3,500 applicants each year. The Michael DeGroote School of Medicine has notably developed admission tests adopted by other schools. In 2001, they developed the
multiple-mini interview to address long-standing concerns over standard panel interviews; viewed as poor reflectors for medical school performance. This format uses short, independent assessments in a timed circuit to obtain aggregate scores in interpersonal skills, professionalism, ethical/moral judgment, and critical thinking to assess candidates. The multiple-mini interview has consistently shown to have a higher predictive validity for future performance than traditional interviews. In 2010, the medical school developed the Computer-based Assessment for Sampling Personal Characteristics, to better assess the applicant's personal characteristics. Several other medical schools have adopted the CASPer test, including
New York Medical College,
Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, and the
University of Ottawa Faculty of Medicine. ==Student life==