Kansas University slipped two spots among public universities in rankings announced Friday by U.S. News and World Report magazine.

The new rankings, which place KU 41st among public universities, move KU further from Chancellor Robert Hemenway’s often-touted goal of becoming a top-25 university.

Hemenway used the announcement to push for more state funding for higher education, saying that would help KU’s rankings.

“The key thing for us is it shows we have a realistic goal for the institution,” he said. “We clearly have the potential to do even better than what we do.”

KU’s ranking among public institutions fell from 30 to 42 between 1998, when the magazine first separated public and private schools, and 2000. KU rebounded slightly to 39th last year.

U.S. News and World Report uses 16 factors, including academic excellence, reputation, retention and graduate rates, student selectivity and financial resources, for its rankings.

KU’s “academic ranking”  a compilation of responses from top university administrators from across the country about university reputations  rose from 34th to 30th.

Hemenway said the rankings showed KU fell in stature, “assuming there’s any real difference between 39th and 41st.”

“I think when you look at the data, the universities jump around,” he said.

Lynn Bretz, a KU spokeswoman, said the university’s goal of being among the top 25 public universities by 2010 included factors such as research funding and number of National Merit scholars.

“Other schools are bent on improving, too,” she said. “We’re running hard just to stay in place.”

Provost David Shulenburger has asked all deans to come up with a plan to elevate their schools into the top 25 in their areas of study.

Other Big 12 schools ranked in the top 50 of the magazine rankings were Texas A&M, which fell from 15 to 24; University of Texas, which climbed from 15 to 14; University of Colorado, which dropped from 28 to 31; University of Missouri, which moved from 36 to 28; and Iowa State University, which dropped from 37 to 39.

The magazine also ranked two professional schools, business and engineering. KU’s School of Engineering climbed from 77th to 61st among all universities and from 41st to 36th among public universities.

The School of Business fell from 44 to 47 among all universities but fell only one slot  from 27 to 28  among public schools.

Stuart Bell, dean of engineering, said it was nice to improve in rankings but he didn’t put too much stock in them.

“Anytime rankings come out and we’re moving up, it’s significant,” he said. “I think it’s good to be included in that there are a number of schools that aren’t ranked. The fact we’re ranked as being one of the top engineering schools is gratifying to us.”

But he said moving up in rankings isn’t the main goal.

“Our hope and goal is not so much to chase after the rankings,” he said. “Our goal is to get down to business, what needs to be done in our programs. If we’re doing good things, rankings will follow that.”

Bill Fuerst, dean of business, said he thought projects under way at his school  including five new endowed professorships and added emphasis on international education  would elevate his school into the top 25.

“These rankings are not an exact science,” he said. “If we drop a point we’ll be wary and if we go up a point it’s not a huge cause for celebration. We just need to be aware of those over the course of time.”