photo by: University of Kansas

Flags fly at the University of Kansas in this stock photo.

The University of Kansas continues to be the top-ranked school in the country for officials who want to lead local governments, according to the latest graduate school rankings by U.S. News & World Report.

It also is near the top for fossil lovers and leaders in the field of special education.

The annual rankings placed KU’s local government program No. 1 among all similar public and private university graduate degree programs in the nation. The KU program has held the overall No. 1 ranking since 1998, making it the university’s most consistently top-ranked graduate program. The degree attracts students from across the country who aspire to be city managers, county administrators or other types of officials who lead government institutions. The closely related program of public management and leaderships ranked No. 7 among public universities.

KU’s paleontology program — which uses an extensive fossil collection to study the history of the world — ranked No. 1 among public universities. So too did KU’s special education program. KU’s general education graduate degree also ranked among the top 10 in the nation, grabbing the No. 8 ranking among public schools.

In total, KU had 10 programs that were ranked in the top 10 among all public schools in the country. It also had 48 programs ranked in the top 50 among the nation’s public universities.

Here’s a look at other areas where KU programs ranked highly among public universities in the annual report:

• KU had multiple programs in the realm of therapy rank high. KU’s speech language pathology program ranked No. 3, while its physical therapy program ranked No. 5, occupation therapy No. 11, clinical child psychology No. 14, clinical psychology No. 26, and psychology No. 32.

• In the medical field, KU’s medical school in Kansas City, Kan. was rated as one of 16 tier one schools for primary care, and ranked in the tier 2 category for medical research. U.S. News & World Report no longer give specific numeric rankings for medical schools, but it does for several other health-related programs. KU’s nursing midwifery program ranked No. 7, audiology program No. 18, pharmacy program No. 18, healthcare management No. 27, nursing anesthesia No. 28, and biostatistics No. 31.

• KU’s legal writing program was the highest ranked among graduate programs at the KU law school with a No. 10 ranking, but the school was one of the most awarded at KU with 10 other programs ranked in the top 50. Environmental law ranked No. 12, dispute resolution No. 14, commercial contract law No. 22, full-time law No. 24, corporate law No. 32, constitutional law No. 35, international law No. 38, intellectual property law No. 40, tax law No. 42, and trial advocacy No. 44.

• In engineering, KU’s petroleum engineering program led the way with a No. 9 national ranking. Aerospace engineering was ranked No. 36, civil engineering No. 44, and environmental engineering No. 44.

• Several core science programs ranked in the top 50, including chemistry No. 39, earth sciences No. 40, mathematics No. 40, physics No. 47, and biology No. 49.

• In business and economics, KU’s full-time MBA program ranked No. 36 and its economics program ranked No. 47.