By Joan C. McKinney, news and publications coordinator
CAMPBELLSVILLE, Ky. – Campbellsville University’s university status and adherence to a new strategic plan and VISION 2025 has helped move the university to a reclassification into a new category of U.S.News & World Report rankings.
“Campbellsville University has moved into a classification with a much stronger set of peers,” Dr. Michael V. Carter, president, said. “We are ranked in the ‘top 100’ which is very good compared to colleges in our previous ranking list.”
CU has been ranked 71st in the 2012 Regional Universities in the South category, according to the new U.S.News & World Report’s “America’s Best Colleges” issue.
“We are in good company with this ranking,” Dr. Michael V. Carter, president said. “The top of the regional universities includes schools such as Samford University, Belmont University, Bellarmine University, Mercer University, Marshall University, Northern Kentucky University, Murray State University, Western Kentucky University, Morehead State University, Eastern Kentucky University, among others, and this is a very respectable ranking among strong schools that are much larger than we are.”
To sort colleges and universities into their appropriate ranking categories, U.S.News & World Report used the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching’s Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education 2010 revisions to its Basic Classification.
In most cases, these category changes were the main explanation for the biggest movements in this year’s Best Colleges rankings.Campbellsville University had previously been ranked in the “Best Regional Colleges in the South” ranking.
Regional universities offer a full range of undergrad programs and some master’s programs but few doctoral programs, and Campbellsville University has moved into another category with the “regional universities” designation. The Carnegie categories are the accepted standard in higher education.
A total of 1,378 colleges and universities were ranked. Of the 626 Regional Universities, 263 are public, 350 private and 13 are for profit. The Regional Universities are split into four categories: South, North, Midwest and West. CU is in the South category.
Campbellsville University was ranked ninth in the Most Internationals in the Regional Universities in the South category with six percent of CU’s student population as international students.
“Campbellsville University has set goals with our strategic plan and our Vision 2025 document, and they are paying off as we enter this new category with U.S.News,” Carter said.
CU has been ranked in U.S.News’ “America’s Best Colleges” 19 consecutive years.
“We know we have innovative programs that prepare our students to be strong Christian servant leaders, and it is gratifying to see that our peers recognize our pioneering academic programs as well as our spiritual, athletic and extracurricular endeavors.”
“It is an honor to be recognized for providing students with an excellent educational experience,” Carter said.
Academic institutions are categorized by their mission and region with the gathering of data from each of 12 indicators of academic excellence. The schools are ranked against their peers, according to scores given by U.S.News & World Report.
The indicators used to capture academic quality fall into a number of categories: assessment by administrators at peer institutions, retention of students, faculty resources, student selectivity, financial resources, alumni giving, and (for National Universities and National Liberal Arts Colleges) high school counselor ratings of colleges and “graduation rate performance.”
The indicators include input measures that reflect a school’s student body, its faculty and its financial resources, along with outcome measures that signal how well the institution does its job of educating students.
Carter said moving to a regional university status is one of the goals that was set in 1996 when Campbellsville became a university and now has been met.
Campbellsville University is a widely acclaimed Kentucky-based Christian university with over 3,000 students offering 63 undergraduate options, 17 master’s degrees, five postgraduate areas and eight pre-professional programs. The website for complete information is campbellsville.edu.