BEST VALUE

ECU listed among top 100 universities in the nation

East Carolina University has been named a 2017 Top 100 Best Value College in a new listing by Educate to Career.

ECU is ranked 99th out of almost 1,200 universities in Educate to Career’s 2017 College Rankings Index. The California nonprofit analyzed labor market outcomes of graduates from accredited four-year colleges with enrollments of 750 students or more, according to its website.

Dr. Ron Mitchelson, ECU provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs, said many national rankings measure the volume and quality of inputs and ignore the outcomes that are achieved.

“We know that when students come to us they are transformed, and this value-added ranking reflects those transformations,” Mitchelson said. “It’s certainly validation of the quality of our programs and the hard work of many faculty and staff.”

He added that ECU’s top 100 ranking “reflects our mission-driven focus on student success and being a great value.”

Educate to Career says it’s the only organization that evaluates the total costs related to attending college and the outcomes of students when they enter the workforce.

The rankings are determined by which schools did the best job of improving earnings and attainment of quality employment of their students, according to the ETC website.

Some of the metrics used include percentage of graduates employed in occupations using their fields of study, average salary, employment within one of year graduation and the number of years in school.

This year, ETC significantly increased the weighting of graduation rates as part of its ranking system. For more information, visit https://www.educatetocareer.org.

Several ECU programs also have been recognized in recent national rankings:

• The graduate program in health informatics and information management in the College of Allied Health Sciences is ranked No. 1 by http://healthinformaticsdegrees.org.
• The College of Education’s educational leadership degree program ranked 15th out of more than 560 colleges, and the elementary education degree ranked 10th out of more than 780 colleges by http://teacher.org.
• The marriage and family therapy graduate degree program in the College of Health and Human Performance is ranked 15th by http://www.online-psychology-degrees.org/best/marriage-family-therap. It is the only school in North Carolina on the list.