UB top public university in NYS, according to WSJ college rankings

UB is rated the No. 1 public university in New York State and is No. 31 among public colleges and universities nationwide in the 2021 Wall Street Journal/Times Higher Education College Rankings.

UB ranks among the top 25 Association of American Universities (AAU) public institutions, according to the rankings, released Sept. 17 by the Wall Street Journal. The rankings will be posted on the Times Higher Education website Oct. 7.

The WSJ/THE rankings are based on 15 key indicators that assess colleges and universities in four pillars:

• Student outcomes (40%), including graduates’ salaries and debt.
• Academic resources (30%), including how much the college spends on teaching.
• Student engagement (20%), including whether students feel prepared to use their education in the real world.
• Learning environment (10%), including the diversity of the student body and academic staff.

UB’s student engagement ranking improved significantly, advancing to No. 153 in that category from 179th a year ago. The university’s learning environment ranking also improved slightly, positioning UB in the top 100 in that metric.

The annual rankings typically also include a student survey. However, the survey was scrapped this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The WSJ/THE rankings rely on data collected before the near-total shutdown of in-person higher education and don’t weigh increasingly important considerations like quality of distance learning or in-person health and safety practices.

UB comes in at No. 121 among public and private colleges and universities nationally, according to the WSJ/THE rankings. UB is 11th among all colleges and universities, public and private, in New York State, and fourth among public universities in the Northeast.