UB moves up in Wall Street Journal/Times Higher Education College Rankings

UB was No. 24 among U.S. public universities, up four spots from a year ago.

BUFFALO, N.Y. — The University at Buffalo is on the rise in another set of college rankings.

UB tied for 117th overall among 1,000 ranked U.S. colleges and universities — the highest rating of any State University of New York (SUNY) institution — according to the 2018 Wall Street Journal/Times Higher Education College Rankings, unveiled Sept. 27.

Data for the College Rankings, now in their second year, is based partly on student feedback. The rankings include the results of a student survey, which gathered the views of more than 200,000 current university students nationwide in 2016 and 2017 to find out about their engagement with their studies, their interaction with their teachers and their satisfaction with their experience.

Nationally, UB tied with the University of the Pacific for 117th. It marks a significant leap for UB, which was No. 147 last year. This year, UB was 24th among U.S. public universities, up four spots from a year ago. UB received an overall score of 66.4 points. (Top-ranked Harvard University garnered 91.9 points.)

UB ranked No. 1 among public colleges in New York State, and was 12th overall in the state, coming in ahead of Stony Brook (17th) and Rochester Institute of Technology (14th).

UB also fared well compared to its peers in the Association of American Universities (AAU), placing 21st among AAU public universities and ahead of Penn State; University of California, Irvine; and Rutgers.

UB officials say the university’s upward trajectory in the rankings is validation of the effort put forth by countless faculty, staff and students to improve the overall student experience through a variety of programs, such as the UB Curriculum and Blackstone LaunchPad. The UB Curriculum is the university’s innovative, student-centered approach to general education that launched in fall 2016. Blackstone LaunchPad at UB is an entrepreneurship program that supports and mentors students, staff and alumni.

The Wall Street Journal/Times Higher Education College Rankings are based on 15 individual performance indicators and constitute a comparative assessment of more than 1,000 U.S. universities and colleges. The rankings are designed to give students and their families the information they need to choose where to study.

The overall methodology explores four key areas: resources, which represents 30 percent of the overall ranking; engagement (20 percent); outcomes (40 percent); and environment (10 percent).

Resources addresses whether the college has the capacity to effectively deliver teaching and accounts for student-faculty ratio and research paper productivity among faculty. UB ranked sixth among public universities nationally and 117th overall in the Resources category.

Engagement covers how well the college engages with and challenges its students. The Outcomes category measures the value-added portion of the university, including its graduation rate, student debt and academic reputation. Environment captures the essence of what it’s like to study at a particular university and takes into account international student population and diversity of students and staff.

UB also scored highly on three key questions to which students responded. These questions were rated on a scale of zero to 10, with 10 representing the strongest agreement:

“If you could start over, would you still choose this college?” – 7.47 out of 10

“Does your college provide an environment where you feel you are surrounded by exceptional students who inspire and motivate you?” – 6.99 out of 10

“Is your college effective in helping you to secure valuable internships that prepare you for your chosen career?” – 7.21 out of 10

UB’s improvement in the Wall Street Journal/Times Higher Education rankings comes a month after U.S. News & World Report released its rankings, in which UB jumped up two spots to No. 97 nationally and No. 41 in public universities. Over the past 10 years, UB has risen 24 spots in the national rankings.