Campbellsville Uni. top regional universities in the South U.S. News & World Report's Best Colleges Guide

By Kasey Ricketts, communications assistant, Office of University Communications

CAMPBELLSVILLE, KY (09/14/2017) (readMedia)-- CAMPBELLSVILLE, Ky. – For the fifth year in a row, Campbellsville University has been named to the top regional universities in the South, according to the U.S. News & World Report rankings, which were released Sept. 12.

This year, U.S. News & World Report also ranked Campbellsville University in the top 10 universities in the South for international education, having the largest proportions of international undergraduate students. Campbellsville University is home to one of the most diverse student populations in Kentucky, as more than 27 percent of all students identitfy as members of minorities or under-represented population groups from nearly 50 countries.

"Due to our growth, Campbellsville University was changed to regional university status in 2012 and has once again we are ranked among the top regional universities in the South by U.S. News & World Report," Dr. Michael V. Carter, in his 19th year as CU president, said. "We are proud and honored to take our place among the top institutions," he said.

CU has been ranked in U.S. News' "America's Best Colleges" for 25 consecutive years.

Carter credited the ranking on the steady implementation of "Vision 2025 – Preparing Christian Servant Leaders," the institution's blueprint for the future, first adopted in 2009.

Campbellsville University is a comprehensive university where students are valued, servant leadership is emphasized and individual lives are being transformed, he said.

Campbellsville Univesity offers 32 online degree programs ranging from certficates, associate, bachelor's and master's.

Campbellsville University ranked in the top 100 for best online MBA programs, top 75 in best online graduate business programs and top 100 for best online graduate education program.

"We are pleased from many perspectives," said Dr. Donna Hedgepath, provost and vice president for academic affairs. "Our multiple top tier rankings demonstrate that our faculty and staff are putting their best professional credential at work for our students."

The university has 145 full-time faculty members. Nearly 64 percent of the faculty hold terminal degrees and 38.8 percent are tenured.

To sort colleges and universities into their appropriate ranking categories, U.S. News & World Report uses the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching's Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education 2010 revisions to its Basic Classification.

Regional universities offer a full range of undergraduate programs and some master's programs but few doctoral programs, and this is the sixth year Campbellsville University has been in the "regional universities" designation. The Carnegie categories are the accepted standard in higher education.

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. CU is ranked 106th in this year's rankings.

The indicators used to capture quality fall into a number of categories: assessment by peers and counselors, graduation and retention rates, faculty resources, student selectivity, financial resources, graduation rate performance and alumni giving rate.

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.

Campbellsville University is a widely-acclaimed Kentucky-based Christian university with more than 5,000 students offering over 80 programs of study including 19 master's degrees, six postgraduate areas and seven pre-professional programs. The university has off-campus centers in Louisville, Harrodsburg, Somerset and Hodgenville with instructional sites in Elizabethtown, Owensboro, and Summersville and a full complement of online programs. The website for complete information is campbellsville.edu.

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