Georgia State ranked six out of 14 for U.S. News and World Report’s Top “Up-and-Coming” national universities, according U.S. News’ website.
Experts who respond to U.S. News’ annual peer assessment survey identified the institutions for their 2015 rankings of institutions making innovative changes in academics, faculty and student life, according to the website.
“All of the schools that received the most nominations from top college officials in their ranking peer group for being up-and-coming are listed here,” the website states.
Dr. Timothy Renick, vice provost and vice president for Enrollment Management and Student Success, said several new university methods contributed to this ranking.
“Georgia State has been at the national forefront of employing new approaches to advisement, classroom innovation, and financial interventions,” he said. “In part because of these innovations, Georgia State is now graduating 1,700 more students every year than was the case five years ago, and our graduation rates are up 22 points in the past decade. These are large impacts.”
Renick also said Georgia State’s initiatives to keep students on track to graduate are an important part of the success.
“We are using adaptive-learning technologies to help students succeed in introductory math courses, and our increased advising staff uses predictive analytics daily to identify potential problems that students are facing,” he said.
These alerts allowed 34,000 meetings between advisers and students last year focused on keeping students on their graduation tracks, according to Renick.
“We are working on developing new approaches to helping students, including a mobile app that would push customized information about academic help and opportunities to students,” he said. “The goal is for Georgia State to become a national model for an urban research university and a place where students from all backgrounds succeed at high rates.”
