Great Egret! Scott Paterson, software integration specialist in the Arts Computing Office, snapped this pic yesterday that should remind us that it's not all Canada geese all the time on campus. No word yet on whether this heron is into spoken word poetry.

Speaking of waterfowl, bonus points to anyone who remembers the name of the solitary Muscovy duck who used to hang out near Health Services.

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University of Waterloo launches new homepage

a message from the Digital Initiatives team in Communications and Public Affairs

The University of Waterloo has launched its new website at uwaterloo.ca. The new homepage has a strong focus on telling the stories of the University of Waterloo's innovative culture and international impact. Implemented in the university’s new web content management system, it is designed to make it easier for a wide range of audiences to find specific information about the university, its programs and its people. The design of the new homepage supports the strategic objectives of the university captured in a homepage content strategy and is WCAG 2.0 Level A compliant. Collaboration between communications and technical specialists at the university was key to the success of the launch.

A key aim of the homepage is to help visitors get timely information about the university and to quickly connect visitors with content relevant to them in the university’s web-space.

The homepage is managed by Communications & Public Affairs, and involves collaboration with colleagues across the university; ongoing input and support are provided by Communications Council, Information Systems & Technology (the managers of the WCMS), and the Web Advisory Committee.  The new homepage will continually evolve to meet the university’s strategic objectives and user needs based on research and analytics.

We would like to hear from you about our new homepage. Let us know your feedback via the online contact form on the About Waterloo website.

 

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New pathways to the Daily Bulletin

You know how they say it's not the destination, but the journey? Well, perceptive readers may have noticed that the Daily Bulletin's headlines no longer appear on the university's homepage. Where they do appear, however, are on the new pathway pages for Current Students, Faculty, and Staff. More will be said about these pathway pages and the resources they provide to university community members in the near future, but for now, all you need to know is that the top headlines from the Daily Bulletin will appear in a box on the right hand side of the page.

Of course, the Daily Bulletin is still accessible through its own website. How else did you get here?

 

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Well, here we are again: in the world's top 200

with material from the media relations office and Institutional Analysis and Planning (IAP)

The Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) has again named the University of Waterloo among the top 200 universities in the world, with results that place it seventh among 22 Canadian institutions. Now in its tenth year, latest edition of the global university ranking was released on August 14.

Waterloo is within the 151-200 range of ranked institutions. After the top 100 institutions are ranked individually, the next 400 universities appear in groups, and are not assigned a specific number.

"The University of Waterloo is committed to its goal of achieving a level of academic excellence that puts us among the top 100 universities in the world," said Feridun Hamdullahpur, president & vice-chancellor of Waterloo. "While we are pleased with these results, we will continue with our dynamic, innovative approach so that we may build on our successes to meet our objective."

The ARWU is a product of the Centre for World-Class Universities at Shanghai Jiao Tong University. It ranks more than 1,000 universities around the world based on criteria that include:

• The number of alumni and university personnel who have won Nobel prizes and Fields medals;
• the number of highly cited researchers;
• the number of articles published in the journals Science and Nature;
• the number of articles indexed in the Science Citation Index; and
• per-capita performance with respect to the institution's size.

Waterloo gained ground in several areas. It is ranked 43rd in the world in the Engineering/Technology and Computer Science category, and its ranking puts it second in Canada. Last year, Waterloo was in the 52-75 category.

This year, the university also appears in categories where it was unranked in 2011. In the broad subject field of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, Waterloo is now in the 151-200 category. Waterloo is within the 76-100 range for chemistry, the 101-150 range for mathematics, and the 151-200 range for physics. It remained in the 76-100 range for computer science, unchanged from last year.

"Waterloo's impressive results in these subject areas reflect the hard work and accomplishments of the students, alumni and faculty," said Hamdullahpur. "The university continues to attract the best and brightest, and these rankings will undoubtedly reinforce to the world the top-quality research and innovation at Waterloo."

The release of the ARWU rankings marks the start of university ranking season, with two other sets of worldwide rankings to be released in the coming weeks, prepared by Britain’s Times Higher Education newspaper and by the consulting firm Quacquarelli Symonds Ltd. Also coming this fall will be two sets of rankings for Canadian universities, one prepared by the Globe and Mail newspaper and one, naturally, from Maclean’s magazine.

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