UA’s ACADEMIC QUALITY ASSESSMENT RISES IN 2003 U.S NEWS RANKINGS, BUT INSTITUTION REMAINS IN THIRD TIER.

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — The University of Arkansas’ "peer assessment score" for academic quality has risen from 2.7 to 2.8 on a 5.0 scale in the 2003 edition of U.S. News and World Report’s "America’s Best Colleges," but the University’s overall ranking remains in the third of four tiers for the 249 national universities the magazine rates.

The much anticipated "America’s Best Colleges" issue will be available at news outlets on Monday, Sept. 16.

"There’s no question the word is getting out across the nation about the rapid progress in academic quality at the U of A," said Roger Williams, associate vice chancellor for University Relations. "In 1999, the UA’s peer assessment score was 2.5. This latest assessment is further evidence of the strides in quality the institution has made under John White’s leadership."

The peer assessment score is determined by an opinion survey of presidents, chief academic officers, and deans of admissions at other national universities. Each respondent is asked to rate peer schools’ academic programs on a scale from 1 (marginal) to 5 (distinguished). For the schools with which they are unfamiliar, they are asked to circle "don’t know."

"What’s really killing us in our drive to move into the second tier is our six-year graduation rate," Williams said. "Those rates have increased only slightly over the last several years, from 42 to 45 percent, which is very low for a national university.

"Further worsening our ranking is that the magazine also calculates a "graduation rate performance" rating, and our score there is a —7. What that means is, given the comparatively high quality of our freshman classes-and the graduation rates that quality predicts-our graduation rate should be seven points higher than it is.

"Over the last few years, our graduation rate performance score has been declining rather than improving," he added. "The reason is that, although our freshman classes have been continually improving in terms of their academic credentials, they have not yet moved through the six-year pipeline."

Williams added that six-year graduation rates should begin improving this year.

"Because of Chancellor White’s emphasis on improving those rates to 66 percent by 2010, and because of the programs we have implemented to increase retention rates, we should see an upswing as the freshman classes of 1998, 1999, 2000 and beyond move farther along through the six-year pipeline."

He added that the UA Office of Institutional Research has projected an increase in graduation rates to 49 percent in 2003, 55 percent in 2004, and 64 percent in 2005.

"In itself, our academic quality score would not disqualify us from the second tier," Williams said. "More than one-fourth of the 61 institutions in the second tier have academic quality scores equal to or lower than ours. Of course, additional factors beyond academic quality, such as faculty resources, student selectivity, and alumni giving, influence an institution’s overall score. While we need to continue making strides in academic quality and other institutional factors, we really must focus like a laser on continuing to improve our retention and graduation rates."