UIndy was recently ranked 301 out of 436 universities nationwide by U.S. News and World Report. The sports management program was ranked 14 out of 50 best accredited sports management programs in Intelligent.com rankings.
University President Tanuja Singh explained U.S. News rankings take into account several factors, one being graduation rates, which she believes played a role in UIndy’s overall rank.
“The graduation rate is a function of our retention rate,” Singh said. “And we have been working on this retention for a long time, since I arrived here, and we’re making progress, but that progress is not going to be visible for a few more years until these people graduate, who we are now retaining at a higher rate. So that is a big function of the overall ranking.”
Singh said she has appointed Vice President for Student Affairs and Student Success Carolyn Golz and Associate Provost Rebecca Gilliland to lead the university’s retention strategy. Singh is hoping that by improving this aspect of the university, the overall ranking will improve, although it may take 4-6 years to see the change. Singh highlighted the U.S. News ranking may not reflect UIndy graduates’ 91% student success rate six months after graduation, illustrating how UIndy students are getting jobs in their respective fields. She also spoke on the success of some of UIndy’s individual programs.
“If you look at engineering, a seven year old, seven/eight year old program, it’s now 113,” Singh said. “I’m convinced that in the next five to seven years, we will be among the top 100 programs in the country. I have the same expectation of our program in nursing, same expectation of our program in sports management.”
UIndy’s sports management program has already reached a high level of success considering its ranking, and Program Director of Sports Management Isabell Mills attributes this to the university’s connections with sports organizations in the city and the program’s overall reputation. She mentioned the university’s positive relationships with organizations like the Pacers, Indiana Sports Corporation and the NCAA.
To sustain the program’s high level of success, Mills is focused on continuing to provide students with hands-on experience and implementing helpful opportunities for sports management majors.
“We’re working on a few different initiatives related to offering microcredentialing options, as well as hopefully implementing a mentoring program,” Mills said. “We are also piloting with our graduate students this spring, sending them to conferences to compete in case study competitions.”
Singh said in light of UIndy’s overall rank, she hopes that prospective students and the UIndy community will consider the quality of UIndy’s individual programs and how relevant our curriculum is. Singh explained that she is not dismissing the overall rank, but she is proud of the successful programs.
“What my hope is, is that as we implement these strategies, we improve the overall rankings of UIndy,” Singh said. “But from a quality program perspective, if you look at the quality of our programs, what we are teaching, how current our curriculum is, and how market responsive our curriculum is, I would hope that people would look at what we do from a very applied perspective, from an experiential learning perspective, that students come here for those unique opportunities by faculty who know how the real world works.”
