More than 30 graduate programs at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill landed in the top 10, either overall or among public universities, in the U.S. News & World Report 2022 “Best Graduate Schools” list, which the university announced in March 2021.
The Gillings School of Global Public Health placed second out of 188 schools and programs of public health in the country, and stayed the top public school in the field. The School of Information and Library Science tied for second nationally and took first for health librarianship. In every other specialty it ranked in the top nine.
The School of Nursing tied for sixth overall. Its master’s program was first among public universities.
Law made the biggest jump. The UNC School of Law came in 24th among all law schools, up 21 places from 2019, and eighth among public ones.
Chancellor Kevin M. Guskiewicz credited the work of students, faculty and staff. “In the middle of a difficult year, our graduate schools have risen in unprecedented ways to face the grand challenges of our time,” he said.
Specialty rankings
Public health doctoral programs ranked second. In library and information studies, the school tied for fifth in services for children and youth.
Nursing produced several high marks. Psychiatric and mental health nurse practitioner programs placed fourth at the master’s level and tied for third at the DNP level. The family nurse practitioner master’s program ranked seventh, and the family DNP tied for fourth.
In the social sciences and humanities, sociology doctoral programs tied for seventh, history tied for 11th, and political science tied for 12th. African American history tied for 10th. Under public affairs, which covers programs in the School of Government and the College of Arts & Sciences’ department of public policy, environmental policy and management tied for 14th, and public management and leadership tied for 13th.
How the rankings are built
Each year U.S. News ranks business, education, engineering, law, nursing and medical schools, using expert opinion alongside statistical measures of faculty, research and student quality. Other disciplines are ranked periodically on the ratings of academic experts. This edition drew on surveys of more than 2,125 programs and on reputation surveys sent to more than 23,000 academics and professionals in fall 2020 and early 2021.
For the medical school listings, U.S. News worked with the Robert Graham Center, a division of the American Academy of Family Physicians, on four new rankings covering graduate practice and diversity.
