IUP has been selected, for the third consecutive year, for Washington Monthly magazine's 2011 national rankings of schools based on their contributions to society.
IUP is one of only eleven Pennsylvania universities and the only public doctoral university in the state to be selected for the rankings.
When compiling the list, Washington Monthly editors used three criteria: social mobility, research, and service.
“Higher education, after all, isn't just important for undergraduates. We all benefit when colleges produce groundbreaking research that drives economic growth, when they offer students from low-income families the path to a better life and when they shape the character of future leaders,” magazine editors said. “And we all pay for it, through hundreds of billions of dollars in public subsidies. Everyone has a stake in how that money is spent.”
According to the editors, they use three categories to determine a college's score: social mobility, or how committed the college is to enrolling low-income students and helping them earn degrees, research production and success at sending undergraduates on to doctoral programs, and service.
“We give great weight to service,” they said. “It's not enough to help students look out for themselves. The best colleges encourage students to give something back.”
Only 258 colleges and universities throughout the nation were selected for the national university rankings.
This recognition follows IUP's selection in 2009, 2010, and 2011 for the President's Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll for exemplary service efforts to America's communities.
IUP was recently recognized, for the second year in a row, as one of “America's Best Colleges” by Forbes magazine. It was one of only twenty-three Pennsylvania colleges and universities chosen for this fourth annual listing, which includes schools based on educational quality, student experiences, and student achievement.
In addition, IUP was selected, for the eighteenth year in a row, as one of the nation's top doctoral universities by U.S. News & World Report.
In August, IUP celebrated its eleventh consecutive year of inclusion in the Princeton Review's Best Colleges guidebook.