KU undergraduate engineering program drops in U.S. News and World Report rankings, business advances

Kansas University’s undergraduate business business program jumped ahead in the U.S. News and World Report 2014 college rankings, while the engineering program lost ground.

The business program rose to the 36th spot among public universities from 45th last year, and it ranked 58th overall, according to the influential and widely followed U.S. News rankings, which were released this week.

The business program essentially switched numerical places with KU’s undergraduate engineering program, which landed at 45th among public universities, down from 36th last year. It ranked 78th overall.

Engineering and business are the only two undergraduate programs that are ranked separately by U.S. News and World Report. Unlike the magazine’s “best colleges” list, rankings for these programs are based solely on peer surveys of deans and senior faculty.

Only the overall lists for business and engineering programs are released by U.S. News and World Report. The rankings for public universities are broken out by KU’s Office of Institutional Research and Planning.

The “best colleges” rankings announced this week showed that KU joined five other universities at the 47th spot in the rankings of public universities, up from 51st, and was one among eight in the 101st spot for national universities.

Those rankings are based on the high school performance and test scores of students who attend, graduation rates and other data.

U.S. News recently tweaked its methodology to give more weight to graduation rates over college admissions selectivity. Many have criticized the rankings for relying on college selectivity and reputation as proxies for school quality.