Sept. 14, 2016
For Immediate Release

 

By Joan C. McKinney, coordinating director

CAMPBELLSVILLE, Ky. - Campbellsville University was recognized as being in the top five best universities with the lowest student debt upon graduation and ranked in the top 10 universities in service for international students, according to the U.S. News & World Report rankings, which were released Sept. 13.

The university remains listed in the top 100 universities in the regional universities category in the South.

The report touted Campbellsville University in helping students keep college debt among the lowest in the region. Other Southern schools with a similar ranking include the University of Mary Washington in Virginia, William Carey University in Mississippi, the University of North Florida and the University of South Florida.

Additionally, Campbellsville University was ranked in the top 10 universities with the most international undergraduate students. With students from nearly 50 countries, the international population makes up 10 percent of the student body. Campbellsville University is home to one of the most diverse student populations in Kentucky, as more than 27% of all students identitfy as members of minorities or under-represented population groups.

“We are so gratified with our new rankings with U.S. News & World Report,” said Dr. Michael V. Carter, who is beginning in his 18th year as CU president.

“We are especially honored by our ranking which recognizes that the university is among the lowest in student debt for our graduates. We take this as a wonderful indication of how hard we work to provide our students with scholarships and other means to help them with their financial aid.

“Our international student population is among the largest in the Commonwealth. This semester, we have 600 international students from 46 countries.”

“Our international office works hard to open our doors for students from across the globe, introducing them to the United States, the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the American approach to higher education,” Dr. Mego Haralu, dean for international education, said.

“We seek innovative ways to serve students from abroad. For example our new programs in graduate business have more than 250 students studying via a weekend format at the university's Louisville Education Center. The Campbellsville University Louisville Education Center recently launced its new Master of Science in Information Technology Management (MSITM) and the Professional MBA.

Carter said CU is moving forward in the ongoing implementation of “Vision 2025 - Preparing Christian Servant Leaders,” which is the institution's blueprint for the future.

CU has been ranked in U.S. News' “America's Best Colleges” 24 consecutive years.

Carter said CU's remaining in the top 100 of regional universities of the South is a tribute to the “excellent” progress in the enhancement of academic excellence, student engagement and fulfilling the historic mission of serving a diverse student population.

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

Carter said, “We are most pleased with this very prestigious recognition in the latest U.S News ratings and consider it further confirmation of our ongoing efforts to move CU forward to new heights of excellence and higher education achievement — all of which benefit our students and graduates.”

Carter said Campbellsville University is constantly improving and upgrading facilities, along with academic programs.

Additionally, with the completion of the first year of the Quality Enhancement Plan, Campbellsville University has placed an emphasis on an across-the-curriculum on the teaching of ethics.

Campbellsville University has 149 full-time faculty members with 66.4 percent holding terminal degrees, and 56 or 37.6 percent are tenured faculty.

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.

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 3,500 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.