Eleven universities, including the University of Toronto, say they will no longer participate in the annual Maclean's magazine ranking of them because it is arbitrary and flawed.

David Naylor, president of the University of Toronto, didn't mince words last night when he spoke about the collective decision.

"It's a bit hypocritical for institutions that tend to be focused on intellectual rigour to implicitly support and endorse a rating system that is really junk science," Naylor said.

Concern about the rankings has been building for years, with a number of universities "concurrently reaching a tipping point," he said.

The magazine, he said, has not been transparent and has been unwilling to respond to concerns about the methodology they use.

The 10 other universities are: Dalhousie University, McMaster University, Simon Fraser University, University of Alberta, University of British Columbia, University of Calgary, University of Lethbridge, University of Manitoba, Université de Montréal and the University of Ottawa.

In a signed letter sent yesterday to Tony Keller, managing editor of special projects for Maclean's, the universities said their main problem has been how it combines and uses aggregate data across a range of programs to create a single ranking.

They described it as being akin to saying a general hospital is ranked first in obstetrics, tenth in cancer care with an overall ranking of fifth.

"For a patient seeking care in one of these areas, such a measure would be useless at best and misleading at worst," they wrote.

Maclean's magazine, however, remained defiant, saying its popular fall survey of 47 Canadian universities, one of the best-selling issues every year, will continue to be published with or without university co-operation.

Keller said a number of universities, not the majority, are uncomfortable with rankings and the magazine will seek other ways to find some of the information that is provided to them. He said it would contain all the information their surveys have previously had.

"Most students don't like to be graded," Keller said. "As long as universities are grading students, we'll be grading universities."

He said students are hungry for information about what will be one of their biggest investments. And while their survey may not be perfect, there's no denying it's useful, he said.

Keller said that while the magazine provides overall rankings, it also displays detailed variable data that can be of specific interest to students.

Indira Samarasekera, president of the University of Alberta, said she couldn't see how the magazine could provide data accurately without co-operation from universities.

"For example, they want average entry grades for all 6,000 students (attending the university this fall)," she said. "There's no way Maclean's can calculate that. ... They won't even come close."

Yesterday's letter follows an earlier letter sent to Maclean's by four universities that boycotted its University Student Issue in April, refusing to participate in a graduate survey.