Newswise — The University of Illinois at Chicago is ranked 8th on the “Best Values” list of the nation’s universities, according to the 2020 edition of the Wall Street Journal and Times Higher Education rankings.
Among more than 340 U.S. public universities, UIC was ranked 21st, in a tie with Michigan State University, and ahead of Ohio State University, the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities and the University of Pittsburgh.
The “Best Values” list, which assesses overall ranking, tuition, fees, housing, and federal and institutional aid among the top 250 overall schools, placed UIC in the top 10, ahead of the University of California, Los Angeles, and Princeton University.
UIC also climbed to 81 out of 801 institutions nationally, according to the latest WSJ/THE ranking. Within the Midwest region, the university placed 12 out of 212 institutions.
“The new ranking is another sign of UIC’s progress as a world-class public research university,” UIC Chancellor Michael Amiridis said. “It’s also an indication that UIC provides unique opportunities for students to access excellence in a diverse learning environment.”
The WSJ/THE overall rankings, which were released Wednesday, are based on 15 institutional performance factors across four pillars: resources, engagement, student outcomes and environment. The ranking also relies on public data and other sources, including the annual Times Higher Education U.S. Student Survey, which gathered more than 170,000 responses to examine “students’ engagement with their studies, their interaction with their teachers and their satisfaction with their experience.”
UIC ranked 33rd and in the top 10% overall in the environment category, which assesses student and staff diversity, student inclusion and the proportion of international students.
For both the resources and outcomes pillars, the university was in the top 25%. The resources category looks at the number of faculty per student, research papers per faculty, and the spending an institution devotes to instruction and student services. The outcomes category considers graduation rate, value added to graduate salary, ability to repay student debt after graduation and academic reputation.
The latest rankings follow UIC’s recent addition of its 16th college, UIC John Marshall Law School — Chicago’s first and only public law school — and the opening of new residential, teaching and research spaces on campus, such as the Academic and Residential Complex and the UIC Engineering Innovation Building.
For four consecutive years, UIC has achieved record campus enrollment. Total enrollment for the 2018 fall semester was more than 31,600 students. Fall semester enrollment numbers will be released next week.
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