Private giving, among other indicators, has contributed to the University of Mississippi’s recent ranking among the nation’s best public institutions in several third-party evaluations of academic and research performance.
In 2016, the university was included for the first time among the elite group of R1: Doctoral Universities – Highest Research Activity by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, the definitive list of the nation’s top doctoral research universities. UM is among a distinguished group of 115 institutions, including Harvard, MIT and Johns Hopkins in the highest research category, which includes the top 2.5 percent of institutions of higher education.
The university also achieved its highest-ever standing in the 2017 U. S. News & World Report annual rankings of Best (Undergraduate) Colleges and Universities, where UM tied for No. 64 in the Top Public Universities category, up seven places from the previous year’s rankings. The rankings reflect 15 indicators of academic excellence, such as graduation and retention rates, undergraduate academic reputation, faculty resources, financial resources and alumni giving rates.
The business (including accounting) and engineering programs were also ranked nationally.
The university ranked in the top 20 percent of U.S. institutions for total research and development expenditures in a report issued by the National Science Foundation based upon 2015 expenditures. For the 10th consecutive year, the university was ranked in the top 20 percent in this report.
The university also performed well in the inaugural ranking of U.S. colleges and universities by The Wall Street Journal and Times Higher Education publications. This measure ranked UM 74th among all the nation’s public universities.
This ranking constitutes a comparative assessment of more than 1,000 colleges and universities, measuring factors such as university resources, student engagement, outcomes and environment. The latter includes a gauge of the university’s efforts to build a diverse and inclusive environment for students, faculty and staff.
Success in international education and research partnerships contributed to the university’s standing on U.S. News’ 2017 list of Best Global Universities. Among the top 1,000 research universities in 65 countries, UM ranked in the top third on this year’s list.
The Best Global Universities list ranks each institution’s international and regional research reputation, including a statistical analysis of peer-reviewed publications, citations and international collaborations. The university ranked in the top 10 percent in international collaborations, and the university’s research areas of physics and pharmacology/toxicology were ranked in the top 20 percent.
U.S. News and World Report ranked two of the university’s graduate academic programs in the top 25 nationally among public universities: the online MBA program (No. 19) and pharmacy (No. 23). Here are some of the other U.S. News rankings of UM graduate programs among public universities:
- School of Education online program (tied No. 35)
- History (tied No. 48) • Master of Business Administration (tied No. 51)
- English (tied No. 56) • Clinical psychology (tied No. 67)
- Civil engineering (tied No. 70)
- Education (tied No. 72)
- Social work (tied No. 77)
- Physics (tied No. 84)
- Electrical engineering (tied No. 85)
- Mathematics (tied No. 91)
In national rankings by other sources, the university achieved several additional accolades among all public and private universities:
- Patterson School of Accountancy (all three degree programs ranked in the top 10 nationally by the journal Public Accounting Report)
- Patterson School of Accountancy master’s and doctoral programs (No. 1 in SEC)
- Patterson School of Accountancy undergraduate program (No. 2 in SEC)
- Creative writing (No. 6 among “Top 10 Universities for Aspiring Writers” by CollegeMagazine.com)
- Online health informatics undergraduate program (No. 3 by the Health Informatics Degree Center)
- Business law program in the School of Law (one of only four schools to earn a perfect score of A+ by preLaw Magazine, ranking it as one of the country’s top programs)
The university’s efforts to achieve excellence in all its endeavors also has helped recruit talented students to learn and contribute on all its campuses. The Chronicle of Higher Education named the university as the nation’s eighth-fastest growing among both public and private colleges in its Almanac of Higher Education, moving up from 13th in 2014.
The university’s incoming freshmen continue to be better-prepared for the rigor of college, posting an average ACT score of 25.2 in fall 2016, surpassing the school record of 24.7 set in 2015. The high school GPA of incoming freshmen also increased, growing from 3.54 to 3.57, another university record.
For information on supporting the University of Mississippi through private and/or planned giving, contact Sandra Guest, vice president of the UM Foundation, at 662-915-5208 or sguest@olemiss.edu.
Staff Reports