The University of Maryland Eastern Shore moved a step closer to meeting President Heidi M. Anderson’s goal of being a “Top 10” historically black institution in the latest Best Colleges survey released today by U.S. News and World Report.
UMES came in at 17 in the publication’s 2022 rankings, one notch higher than a year ago and equaling the highest peer rating since the publication created a category in 2007 focusing exclusively on historically black colleges and universities as a group.
Each year of Dr. Anderson’s presidency she has issued a “call to action” that serves as a campus theme. This year, Dr. Anderson called on the campus to work together on student retention and persistence.
Anderson states, “as most people in higher education will tell you, retention is everyone’s business, but what does that really mean and what does it look like at UMES? For us, retention is exercising leadership. It is being willing to go the extra mile for students and with students to see that they are heard and their issues are addressed in a timely and courteous manner. It is being confident in one’s own role at the University and willing to speak up and step up to share new ideas, fresh approaches and to create new networks to solve new and old problems together.”
This new ranking marks the second year in a row the university’s ranking improved one position. When Dr. Anderson took office in September 2018, she challenged faculty, staff, alumni and supporters to work towards moving the university into the upper tier.
U.S. News & World Report again rated Spelman College, a private institution in Atlanta, as the nation’s best HBCU. Seventy-eight four-year HBCUs were listed in the latest survey.
UMES offers bachelor’s degrees in 37 areas, including such fields as engineering, golf management, hospitality studies, kinesiology, marine science education, mathematics, information technology and humanities. Cybersecurity and pharmaceutical sciences are among 15 master’s degree programs in UMES’ graduate school, which also offers eight doctoral degrees, including pharmacy, physical therapy and toxicology.
UMES is the only HBCU to offer eight health professions programs, producing graduates to combat the rural health care disparities that exist in medically underserved areas throughout the country. UMES is one of 15 HBCUs with Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology credentials.
Of the 78 HBCUs ranked in the 2022 survey, 18 received a higher “peer assessment” score than UMES, a leading factor in the publication’s ranking equation.
U.S. News asks senior administrators – presidents, senior academic policymakers and admissions directors – to rate the academic quality of peer institutions. Graduation and retention rates, alumni giving and faculty resources also carry a lot of weight in the ranking equation.
Other factors taken into consideration include the number of full-time faculty, student selectivity based on test scores and high school class standing, the institution’s financial resources and how large classes are. UMES’ student-to-faculty ratio is 10-to-1, and 70 percent of classes the university offers average fewer than 20 students.
The Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education recognizes UMES as a “high-research activity” doctoral institution where seven current faculty members hold a combined 14 U.S. and international patents.
Part of the 12 institution / three regional centers that comprise the University System of Maryland, UMES is widely recognized as one of the nation’s most racially and culturally diverse institutions of its size.
UMES is accredited by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education.
