UA improves college ranking

The University of Arkansas moved up four places among public universities in the U.S. News & World Report list of “Best National Universities.” The ranking appears in the magazine’s “Best Colleges 2014” consumer guide book.

The UA was ranked No. 63 among public universities, a slight improvement from a year ago. The university is up six places in the overall ranking of 201 top-tier national universities – from No. 134 in 2012 to No. 128 this year.

The university is the only public institution in the state to be ranked among the top tier schools.

“This is great news for the University of Arkansas,” said Chancellor G. David Gearhart. “It is our goal to be ranked as a top 50 public research university by 2021. Our students, our faculty, our staff and our administrators are all working very hard to meet this goal. The U.S. News survey shows that we are clearly moving in the right direction.”

The “Best Colleges” ranking is based on a variety of factors, including retention rate, graduation rate and class size, as well as the ACT scores and grade point averages of incoming freshmen.

“These are all areas in which the university has been steadily improving,” said Provost Sharon Gaber. “We have increased our graduation rate to 60% and our freshman retention rate to 83% These improvements are a result of our quality educational enhancements, including adding more faculty, adding class offerings and intersessions, adding student finance seminars, and recruiting students with strong academic backgrounds.”

On the individual college level, the Sam M. Walton College of Business was ranked No. 27 among the public business schools and 47th among national undergraduate business programs.