{"id":153880,"date":"2019-09-09T00:01:09","date_gmt":"2019-09-09T04:01:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=153880"},"modified":"2019-09-11T09:13:14","modified_gmt":"2019-09-11T13:13:14","slug":"uconn-ranked-u-s-news-top-25-academic-quality-consistently-strong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2019\/09\/uconn-ranked-u-s-news-top-25-academic-quality-consistently-strong\/","title":{"rendered":"UConn Ranked in U.S. News Top 25; Academic Quality Consistently Strong"},"content":{"rendered":"

UConn\u2019s high academic quality remains solid as it retains its spot among U.S. News & World Report\u2019s top 25 public institutions, but a change in the way schools\u2019 financial resources are calculated has hurt the university just as other institutions are competing to catch up and, in a few cases, have leapfrogged ahead this year.<\/p>\n

UConn this year is ranked No. 24 among public universities in the listing, down from last year\u2019s spot at No. 22.<\/p>\n

All told, the data released Monday paint a picture of an academically strong university that consistently attracts top talent, retains and graduates those students in high numbers, and is well regarded by guidance counselors and in higher education on the national stage.<\/p>\n

In fact, UConn stayed steady or improved in all measures of institutional quality this year in the rankings, including student retention and selectivity, graduation rates, academic reputation and faculty resources.<\/p>\n

With the average undergraduate earning a degree in 4.2 years, UConn is fourth in the nation in that metric among public universities. It\u2019s also a leader in freshman retention rates, with 93% of students returning after their first year; and the average SAT scores of incoming freshmen remain among the best compared with peer institutions.<\/p>\n

However, this year\u2019s U.S. News rankings also show other institutions stepping up their game amid intense competition for talented students and faculty \u2013 while at the same time, UConn\u2019s strong, steady academic profile hasn\u2019t been enough to counteract the effects of a change in the way financial resources are reflected.<\/p>\n

Based on results in each of the specific metrics, UConn likely would have remained at last year\u2019s No. 22 mark this year except that two institutions \u2013 Florida State and University of Pittsburgh \u2013 made large enough gains to reshuffle the rankings, moving past UConn and several other institutions into the top 20.<\/p>\n

\u201cUConn is among the top 25 best public research universities in the nation, and we are very proud of that,\u201d UConn President Thomas C. Katsouleas said. \u201cRankings are very important, but our strategy at UConn is not to chase this or any ranking. Rather, we are going to pursue what we value, building the strength of the institution, recruiting talented students and faculty, engaging our alumni and growing research, fully expecting the rankings to follow us.\u201d<\/p>\n

UConn\u2019s ranking this year was also affected, albeit to a smaller degree, by the measure of living alumni who donate to their institutions, which counts for 5% of U.S. News\u2019 overall rankings. In UConn\u2019s case, just shy of 9% of living alumni with bachelor\u2019s degrees donated in the two-year span that the ranking considers, continuing a decline in recent years.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is something we have control over and we fully expect to turn it around,\u201d said Katsouleas.<\/p>\n

While fewer alumni have given to UConn, UConn is raising higher dollar amounts. The UConn Foundation recently reported it raised $71 million in fiscal year 2019, and has raised nearly $382 million in the last five years.<\/p>\n

With the measure of financial resources counting for 10% of each school\u2019s U.S. News & World Report scores, UConn\u2019s ranking has dropped since the new methodology was introduced.<\/p>\n

Universities\u2019 financial resources are measured on a two-year average of spending per student, using data that each school reported for the federal Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS).<\/p>\n

That has always included fringe benefit costs borne by the schools. Starting in fiscal year 2015, IPEDS also included costs an institution pays as part of their state\u2019s attempts to catch up on pension obligations that had been underfunded over previous years.<\/p>\n

Because Connecticut\u2019s unfunded pension costs are among the nation\u2019s highest \u2013 and UConn has paid tens of millions of dollars annually toward them \u2013 UConn\u2019s financial resources number and rank in the IPEDS were higher in FY15 and FY16.<\/p>\n

However, U.S. News last year directed universities to identify how much of their IPEDS figures represented the unfunded pension liability, changing its methodology so those costs would not be considered in the per-student spending tally used in the rankings. A second change in the methodology used by U.S. News this year measures the graduation rates of students who receive Pell Grants at each university.<\/p>\n

That would suggest that if all other factors remained even, next year\u2019s ratings could stabilize \u2013 except that fails to include the heightened competition that UConn faces, both from its traditional peer institutions and from others who are climbing due to targeted initiatives or investments.<\/p>\n

The effects are already being seen in this year\u2019s rankings, where UConn is tied this year for No. 24 with the University of Maryland at College Park and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.<\/p>\n

Despite those challenges, UConn has shown consistently strong academic performance, including in this year\u2019s U.S. News rankings, which show:<\/p>\n