U of A Again Ranked in Top Tier Among Public Research Universities in U.S. News 'Best Colleges 2015' Report

Photo Submitted

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – For the 10th year in a row, the University of Arkansas is ranked in the top tier of national universities in the “Best Colleges 2015,” the annual report from U.S. News and World Report. The U of A is ranked 135th among all national universities, and 69th among national public universities.

The University of Arkansas remains the only public institution in the state to be ranked among the top tier of schools.

The Sam M. Walton College of Business ranks 29th among all public undergraduate business programs, and 45th among all undergraduate business programs, based on a peer assessment by deans of accredited business colleges.

The “Best Colleges 2015” also ranked the U of A as 36th nationwide in the category of Best Colleges for Veterans.

Other category ranks that showed improvements are:

• alumni giving rate rose to 19th among all national universities, public and private, up from 21st
• student selectivity rose to 99th among all national universities, public and private, up from 103rd
• faculty resources ranking rose to 99th among all national universities, public and private, up from 131st among national institutions

Despite record enrollment growth and significant increases in the academic quality of students and faculty resources in recent years, the university’s current rankings show a slight drop from the 2014 report, which put the university at 63rd place among the 629 public universities and 128th place overall.

“U.S. News and World report rankings are very fluid and we expect they will ebb and flow from year to year,” said Kathy Van Laningham, vice provost for planning.  “One slight change in certain qualifiers can have an effect on the total score. We are on the data line and unfortunately, that threw us into a lower overall ranking this year.”

“Last year we were in a group of seven schools ranked at 128th overall,” said Gary L. Gunderman, director of institutional research. “This year, there is a similar group of six public schools ranked 129th overall. Falling out of that group of six means that we have an overall ranking of 135th instead of 129th and a public ranking of 69th rather than 63rd.  In some ways it is an aberration that ends up being unfavorable to our ranking this year. We are only one point out of that group of six that would have changed our overall score rather dramatically.”

“The report is useful because it recognizes some of the improvements we’ve made and points out other areas where we still have more work to do,” said Chancellor G. David Gearhart. “And it gives us a real sense of the quality of the competition we are facing.

“This does not change our goals one bit. We will continue to strive to be recognized as a Top 50 public research university by the year 2021. No one said this would be easy and we have some hard work ahead of us, but we will stay the course toward that overall goal.

“While we would love to have moved up, we will not be deterred,” Gearhart said. “We take pride in all of the enhancements we’ve made in recent years, recognizing that by doing so, those were the right things to do for the U of A to improve graduation and retention, faculty resources, keeping class sizes small and keeping quality high. We look forward to announcing our current graduation rate in the coming weeks. The fact is the university has never been in better shape and the future is bright.”

The U of A is consistently recognized as one of the nation’s best values among public research universities, and has been ranked as the nation’s 7th fastest growing public research university by the Chronicle of Higher Education. The School of Law is ranked No. 1 as the Best Value in legal education by National Jurist magazine while the Sam M. Walton College of Business is ranked No. 1 nationally by U.S. News for the percentage of M.B.A. students employed at graduation.

U.S. News methodology for ranking schools in “Best Colleges” is based on a number of different data categories, each given a set statistical weight and making up a specific percentage of the overall score.

 “As our student quality continues to improve, U.S. News’ expectation for our graduation rate performance continues to rise,” said Provost Sharon Gaber, vice chancellor for academic affairs. “We continue to make improvements in our six-year graduation rates and have launched additional efforts to get students cross the finish line.”

The two biggest factors accounting for the dropping out of the next highest rank are the high school guidance counselor assessment score and the predicted graduation rate performance score. The predicted graduation rate prediction score is based on the 2007 student cohort; U.S. News uses this group’s performance on standardized tests and high school GPA to predict that the University of Arkansas should have a 68 percent graduation rate.

The U.S. News survey is primarily based on data from the fiscal year ending June 30, 2013, while some of the factors include data based on a two or four-year rolling averages.