FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
August 20, 2004
Carolina Ranks Fifth Among Public Campuses, Among Leaders
for Student Accessibility in U.S. News Rankings
CHAPEL HILL, NC -- The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill ranked as the nation's fifth best public university and a leader in making education financially accessible to students, according to U.S. News & World Report magazine.
UNC also posted a 21-point gain in the magazine's faculty resources category ranking, Carolina's best showing in that category in five years. The magazine considered snapshots of class size, average faculty compensation in 2002-03 and 2003-04, proportion of faculty who are full time and with the highest degree in their field, and student-faculty ratio.
"Carolina is making progress in strategic areas that we have defined as critical to providing a high-quality undergraduate education," said Chancellor James Moeser. "These U.S. News rankings reflect only one assessment of a university's quality. Our focus is on overall excellence to benefit the people of North Carolina and beyond."
The new rankings appear in the magazine's "America's Best Colleges" guidebook and will be posted at www.usnews.com Friday (Aug. 20) at 12:01 a.m. EDT. The magazine and the guidebook are scheduled to be on newsstands Monday (Aug. 23).
Among public campuses, the University of California at Berkeley ranked first, followed in a tie for second by the universities of Michigan at Ann Arbor and Virginia. The University of California at Los Angeles was fourth, followed by UNC at fifth for the second consecutive year. These same five campuses have either traded or tied for the top five slots among publics for years. Overall, Carolina ranked 29th - the same as last year - among both public and private campuses. Other top publics ranked overall between 21st (Berkeley) and tied for 25th (UCLA).
The rankings are based on a formula that weighs data including opinion survey responses about academic excellence from peer presidents, provosts or admissions officials; student retention rates; faculty resources (ranging from class size to faculty compensation to faculty credentials); student selectivity; financial resources; graduation rates; and alumni giving.
Two U.S. News rankings - best value and least debt load - help affirm Carolina's standing among the national leaders in student accessibility as UNC launches its innovative Carolina Covenant program this fall for low-income students.
The Carolina Covenant, a first among U.S. public universities, makes a Chapel Hill education possible debt-free for qualified low-income students. Eligible freshmen can graduate without borrowing if they work 10 to 12 hours weekly in a work-study job. Carolina will meet the rest of their needs through federal, state and private grants and scholarships.
UNC ranked second among national public campuses and 19th overall in "Great Schools, Great Prices," based on a formula determining which schools offer best value by relating academic quality to the net cost of attendance for a student who receives the average level of financial aid. Another category - least debt among students - listed UNC sixth among public campuses and 11th overall with 24 percent of graduates posting an average debt totaling just over $11,500 in 2003.
Thirty percent of UNC undergraduates received need-based financial grants in 2003. UNC awarded $160 million in aid to more than 13,500 students. Undergraduates, on average, had two-thirds of their need met with scholarships and grants and contributed the other third through loans and work-study jobs. Most aid packages nationwide are closer to two-thirds loans and one-third grants.
In recent years, when UNC enacted a campus-based tuition increase, it dedicated 35 percent of the revenue to aid for needy students, and every needy student received a grant to cover a campus-based tuition increase. The average cumulative indebtedness of a graduating senior who borrowed dropped from $13,700 in 2000 to $11,519 in 2003.
Moeser said he was pleased that the university's efforts to improve and enhance accessibility for qualified students were being recognized nationally." Our goal is to keep Carolina accessible to the most academically qualified students, regardless of income," he said. "The Carolina Covenant helps ensure that a Chapel Hill education will be available to everyone who can make the grades to qualify. We are pleased with the overwhelmingly positive response the Carolina Covenant has received."
UNC's own measures of excellence, developed in 2002 in consultation with trustees, emphasize indicators that the university provides an outstanding, intellectually challenging liberal arts education for undergraduates. The university has invested its resources based on these key priorities such as class size.
In 2003, 51 percent of UNC's course sections enrolled fewer than 20 students. That was second (topped only by UC-Berkeley at 54 percent) among UNC's public peers and up from 40 percent in 2002. U.S. News considered an additional measure: only 12 percent of UNC's course sections enrolled 50 or more students in 2003, down from 13 percent the previous year.
In other U.S. News rankings, UNC's Kenan-Flagler Business School tied for sixth with the Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Texas at Austin among undergraduate business degree programs. Kenan-Flagler tied for third among public campuses.
In specialty areas, Kenan-Flagler was listed fifth for marketing and tied for fifth in productions/operations management. Other specialties ranked were management (sixth), finance (ninth), quantitative analysis (tied for 11th) and international business (tied for 16th).
U.S. News included Carolina in a category called "programs to look for" -- highlighting outstanding examples of academic programs that lead to student success. Education experts, including staff of the Association of American Colleges of Universities, helped identify these programs.
UNC was listed among 15 campuses, including four publics, with exemplary senior capstone experiences. Such honors programs permit students to create a special senior project integrating what they have learned. Carolina was among 40 public and private campuses cited for their first-year experiences programs, which include first-year seminars and other programs bringing small groups of students together with faculty and staff on a regular basis. UNC was one of 18 public campuses selected.
U.S. News & World Report contact: Richard Folkers, (202) 955-2219, rfolkers@usnews.com
UNC contact: Mike McFarland, (919) 962-8593, mike_mcfarland@unc.edu
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