According U.S. News & World Report, Oregon State University is first among Pacific Northwest colleges and universities for innovation, and 33rd in nation. The annual report was released on Monday.
“Innovation at Oregon State extends throughout everything we do,” said OSU President Ed Ray in a release. “Examples of innovation at the university include initiatives to support student success and grow graduation rates, employ nationally renowned faculty, conduct globally impactful research and discovery, expand cutting-edge campuses and educational facilities in Corvallis and Bend, offer nationally top ranked online teaching, and provide university centers in Portland and Newport.”
The Orange and Black tied with Yale and Georgetown for the innovation rating, nationally. Closer to home, Boise State University ranked 42nd, and University of Washington placed 52nd.
OSU has been keeping up quite the pace, according to university officials:
- Innovative research breakthroughs in discovery including the use of nanoparticles to kill cancer heat; creating portable, solar-thermal desalination technology to serve people in drought-stricken coastal communities; and developing a vaccine for antibiotic-resistant gonorrhea.
- Opening a Learning Innovation Center, a Corvallis campus building that includes new styles of learning spaces that support collaboration and student participation, including “in-the-round” classroom designs.
- Constructing a new building for the College of Forestry that uses innovative cross laminated timber products and another new building at the Hatfield Marine Science in Newport with state-of-the-art architectural and engineering techniques, including one of the nation’s first vertical evacuation tsunami sites.
- Offering as part of a university-wide Undergraduate Student Success Initiative, micro grants to 162 seniors with high financial need to help them remain enrolled and continue working toward graduation. Financial aid programs and other student success initiative efforts also have helped increase OSU’s six-year graduation rate to 67%.
- Meanwhile, 46.5% of students who entered OSU as true freshmen in 2015 graduated in 2019 with no debt compared to a national average of 34%.
In other U.S. News Rankings
Oregon State placed 64th nationally in the top public schools category, up nine spots in the past two years; 76th in best undergraduate teaching; 99th in best colleges for veterans; and 139th in the national universities category – one spot higher than in 2019.
University officials added that back in January, U.S. News ranked Ecampus, Oregon’s State’s online degree programs, as No. 3 in the nation.
By Andy Thompson
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