KU listed at 56th among public universities in U.S. News & World Report rankings

Tue, 09/13/2016

Andy Hyland

LAWRENCE — In the 2017 edition of U.S. News & World Report’s “Best Colleges,” KU dropped one spot in the rankings to a tie for 56th among public universities.

“Rankings, although important, are just one factor we use to measure our success,” said Chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little. “We track how our performance compares to our peers’ while focusing on additional priorities, which include student retention and graduation rates and increasing our freshmen and overall enrollment.”

KU has several initiatives in place to help improve those measures. This year’s freshman class is the first to be admitted under new admission procedures designed to help students be more prepared to enter college. The Kansas Board of Regents approved the new admission standards for KU in 2012, and they went into effect this year.

Other initiatives through the Office of Undergraduate Studies and across the university are also designed to help improve student retention and graduation.

“We know it can take time to have these rankings reflect our work to advance KU,” said Neeli Bendapudi, provost and executive vice chancellor. “We are making progress with new student support structures and people in place that enrich the student experience and ensure even more students succeed.”

In other U.S. News & World Report rankings released Tuesday, KU climbed three spots into a tie for 40th place among public universities in the Best Colleges for Veterans rankings. KU has also placed highly in other rankings that assess veteran and military student services and rates of academic achievement.

In rankings of undergraduate education programs, the School of Engineering fell four spots to 44th among public universities, and the School of Business dropped two spots to 41st among public schools.

U.S. News & World Report releases graduate school rankings in the spring. KU had 49 graduate programs ranked this year, including 10 programs in the top 10 among public universities nationally.