The College of Business at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln solidified its spot among the Top 50 undergraduate business schools in the latest U.S. News & World Report rankings.
The college checked in at No. 45 in the publication’s annual ranking of business programs, which were released Sept. 12. Nebraska Business was No. 48 last year and No. 61 in 2015. Among public business colleges, Nebraska was No. 28.
U.S. News’ business-school rankings are based on peer assessment surveys conducted in 2016 and 2017. To qualify for the publication’s rankings, the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business must accredit an undergraduate business program.
Nebraska Business, which moved into 240,000-square-foot Howard L. Hawks Hall in August, offers 10 undergraduate majors – accounting, actuarial science, agribusiness, business administration, economics, finance, international business, management, marketing and supply chain management. In five years, the college’s undergraduate enrollment has grown by 30 percent.
“Being recognized among the nation’s elite private and public business schools is a great honor. It is affirmation that we are making great strides toward becoming a world-class college,” said Kathy Farrell, interim dean of Nebraska Business. “The opening of our new building, our recent 15 percent enrollment increase in first-time freshmen and a 6 percent increase overall also indicate that our new and expanding programs are attractive for our ever-growing Nebraska Business community – our students, parents, alumni, faculty, staff, business partners and friends.”
Overall, the university remained in the first tier of national universities in the latest rankings. Nebraska checked in at No. 58 among public national universities, and among all national universities (public, private and professional), the university was tied with eight other institutions at No. 124.
To assess more than 1,600 of the country’s four-year colleges and universities, U.S. News first assigns each to group of its peers. This year, the national universities category grew to 311 institutions — 190 public, 114 private and seven for-profit — that offer a wide range of undergraduate majors as well as master’s and doctoral degrees; some emphasize research.
To arrive at the overall university rankings, data on up to 15 indicators of academic quality are gathered from each institution and tabulated. Among the indicators are peer assessment; retention and graduation of students; faculty resources; student selectivity; financial resources; alumni giving; and graduation rate performance – the difference between the proportion of students expected to graduate and the proportion that do.
“While the importance of institutional rankings is often debated, many of the metrics on which these rankings are based are an important part of our university’s mission as well as areas we have identified for improvement,” Chancellor Ronnie Green said. “We are actively pursuing strategies to have greater success and to build upon our related accomplishments, such as our record enrollment.”
In January, four online programs were recognized in U.S. News’ Best Online Programs rankings. The university’s online graduate education, bachelor of science in applied science, master of business administration and master of engineering management online programs were among the nation’s top programs.
