Pitt’s Schools of Nursing, Education Rank High in U.S. News 2013 Best Online Programs Rankings

The online master’s degree program of the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Nursing ranked No. 5 and the online master’s degree program of the Pitt School of Education ranked No. 31 among U.S. public institutions of higher education in the newly published U.S. News & World Report 2013 Best Online Education Programs rankings. 

This is the second year that U.S. News has evaluated online higher education programs and the first year that it has published overall numerical rankings of those online programs.  

“With the number of schools offering fully online degree programs nearly double what it was 10 years ago … more students can unlock the benefits of higher education without quitting their jobs or uprooting their families,” wrote U.S. News education reporter Kelsey Sheehy in the introductory text accompanying the rankings tables. “But similar to brick-and-mortar colleges, not all online degree programs are created equal. U.S. News aims to help students evaluate their options with the 2013 Best Online Education Programs rankings,” Sheehy added. 

According to U.S. News, “Only degree-granting programs offering courses that are 100 percent online were considered for the rankings. These programs were assigned an overall numerical rank based on the following factors: student engagement, faculty credentials and training, and student services and technology. Admissions selectivity also factored in to the rankings for all online master’s degree programs.” 

In 2012, just the Pitt online master’s degree program in education was considered.For that year’s publication, only selected individual factors within each program were ranked. Within the Faculty Credentials and Training component, Pitt’s online education program advanced to No. 5 among all schools, public and private, in 2013 from No. 68 in 2012, and in the Student Services and Technology category, education jumped to 32nd place among all schools in 2013 from 78th in 2012. In 2013, Pitt’s online nursing master’s degree program achieved a ranking of 4th among all schools, public and private, in the Student Services and Technology category.