(CHAPEL HILL) March 25, 2022 – The rest of the media didn’t seem to notice, but the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill was recently ranked the top public university in the South by the Wall Street Journal/Times Higher Education College Rankings.1
The rankings also listed Carolina as third among all public universities and 33rd among all universities – public or private – in the nation.
The ranking is based on 15 factors across four categories: 40% of each school’s score comes from student outcomes, including graduate salaries and debt burdens; 30% from the school’s academic resources, including how much it spends on teaching; 20% on how well it engages students; and 10% on its environment, a measure of student and faculty diversity.
Duke University was listed as No. 5 overall in the nation and the top private college in the South. The University of Florida and University of Virginia were listed as the No. 2 and No. 3 public universities in the region.2
“Carolina is committed to serving our state and, as a result, the entire Southern region of the United States,” said UNC-CH Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz.
“As the top-ranked university in the South, we will continue to strive for excellence as we prepare our students to do great things. We have long aspired to be the leading global public research university … and our preeminence in these rankings will continue to attract the world’s best faculty, staff and students, along with the top national and international industry partners, to our region.”3
1 https://www.unc.edu/posts/2022/03/07/carolina-named-the-top-public-university-in-the-south/.
2 https://www.wsj.com/articles/top-public-and-private-colleges-in-the-south-11646233180.
3 https://www.unc.edu/posts/2022/03/07/carolina-named-the-top-public-university-in-the-south/.
michael voiland says
If there was a factor weighing the level of political intervention in university affairs and faculty hiring/teaching, UNC-CH may not have fared as well.