March 10, 2015

Graduate programs earn national recognition

by Christi Mathis

CARBONDALE, Ill. -- Southern Illinois University Carbondale’s graduate programs earned national recognition in U.S. News & World Report’s “2016 Best Graduate Schools” guide, released today (March 10). 

The College of Education and Human Services moved up from 77 to 59 in the rankings. This marks the second year in a row the college has improved its ranking. The college has been ranked among the top 85 graduate education programs for several years now.  

“This is an indication of the hard work of the faculty, staff and students in our college,” Keith B. Wilson, dean of the College of Education and Human Services, said. 

“This is a significant jump in the ranking and I attribute it to a lot of people working hard and making positive changes,” Wilson said. “We have the right people in the right places and are doing the right things. And, we are documenting our efforts. Our focus is on our students and programs and we are going in the right direction. We are going to continue this progress.” 

SIU was founded in 1869 as a teachers college and has consistently won recognition for its education and human services programs. In fact, the university’s graduate Rehabilitation Counseling program is again ranked fourth in the nation by U.S. News as well. This is the third consecutive year the program has held that position. 

In addition, U.S. News & World Report ranked the SIU School of Law No. 149.  This marks the second time in three years that the law school has been among the publication’s top 150 schools of law.  

U.S. News determines the scores and rankings for universities by using a number of indicators, including: placement success upon graduation, research activity, student selectivity, research funding, doctoral program acceptance rates, faculty resources, student-to-faculty ratio, percentage of award-winning faculty, GRE scores, peer and school superintendent quality assessments and additional considerations. The 2016 rankings are based on surveys conducted during fall 2014 and early 2015.  

U.S. News also recently recognized SIU’s online MBA program at No. 36 among its “Best Online Graduate Business Programs” and last fall, SIU earned a ranking of 65th on the U.S. News “Best National Universities for Veterans” list.