ASU climbs rankings for minority-awarded graduate degrees

ASU ranks first in nation for doctorates awarded to Native Americans in education, law and all disciplines

Arizona State University diversity rankings continue to climb for the number of graduate degrees awarded to underrepresented minorities. The rankings are published in “Diverse: Issues in Higher Education” magazine and are based on data from the National Center for Education Statistics.

ASU’s rankings reflect the number of minority degrees awarded in various disciplines compared to other universities across the nation. The ranking is an indication of which programs and disciplines attract, retain and graduate the highest number of underrepresented students.

Overall, 27 of ASU’s programs appear in the top 10 and a total of 53 programs are in the top 25. ASU rankings saw substantial increases over 2012.

In a category called “all disciplines combined,” which summarizes total degrees awarded from all graduate programs at ASU, ASU ranks first in the nation for doctoral degrees and third for professional doctorates and master’s degrees awarded to Native Americans.

Other graduate programs in which ASU ranks high in minority graduates include architecture, business, education, engineering, law, health professions, mathematics, physical sciences, public administration and social services, and the visual and performing arts.

Highlights of the top degree rankings include:

• No. 2 ranking for doctorates awarded to Hispanics in foreign languages and literature, and master’s degrees to Native Americans in engineering.

• No. 3 ranking for master’s degrees in architecture and doctoral degrees in mathematics awarded to Hispanic students.

• No. 5 ranking for Asian American doctorates in education, a 350 percent increase over the previous year.

• No. 6 ranking for doctorates awarded to all minority groups combined in the field of mathematics, as well as the visual and performing arts. ASU also ranked sixth for doctorates in education awarded to Hispanics.

• No. 8 and No. 10 ranking for respective doctoral degrees in physical sciences and master’s for engineering awarded to Asian-American students.

• No. 12 ranking for master’s degrees in legal professions awarded to African Americans, a 500 percent increase over last year.

Highlights of the top 15 rankings for ASU can be found at graduate.asu.edu/grow/diversity/rankings.

Additional rankings from “Hispanic Outlook in Higher Education” magazine published in April 2013 indicate that ASU is one of the leading universities in enrolling and graduating Hispanic students in several key categories:

• No. 11 ranking for graduate schools enrolling Hispanics

• No. 13 ranking for master’s degrees in business management and marketing

• No 14 ranking for master’s and doctorates in teacher education               

• No. 15 ranking for master’s and doctoral STEM degrees (science, technology, engineering and math)     

“We are very proud of the quality of our programs and our students,” says Andrew Webber, vice provost for Graduate Education at ASU. “Rankings such as these affirm that ASU continues to attract diversity in its student body and supports all its students in achieving academic success.”

Diversity services and support for graduate students at ASU include SHADES, a peer-to-peer multicultural mentoring program; Interdisciplinary Research Colloquium (IRC) seminars and ASU PREP in Biomedical Sciences. Other graduate diversity support and mentoring groups can be found at graduate.asu.edu/diversity.