Arizona State University has 13 graduate degree programs that rank in the top 10 nationwide — including one that is ranked No. 1, according to new rankings just released by U.S. News & World Report.
ASU’s master’s degree program in homeland security was ranked No. 1 in the country, tied with the Naval Postgraduate School, and ranked higher than the programs at Harvard and Columbia universities. Last year, the homeland security degree program, in the Watts College of Public Service and Community Solutions, ranked third.
Of the 13 top-ranked degree programs, seven are in the Watts College of Public Service and Community Solutions. The list was released March 29 after the magazine assessed more than 2,150 degree programs for 2023. (Note that some programs are ranked only every three or four years, so not every area is included in the latest rankings.)
Watts College Dean Cynthia Lietz said the college is home to some of the most highly ranked programs in the country.
“It is wonderful to see our focus in emergency management and homeland security recognized as one of the best in the nation,” Lietz said.
U.S. News & World Report provides several higher education rankings throughout the year, and last fall rated ASU as the most innovative university in the country for the seventh year in a row.
Besides homeland security, the other 12 graduate degree programs at ASU that ranked in the top 10, with last year’s ranking in parentheses, are:
“Our growing national reputation for graduate education is thanks to the scholarship and research of our distinguished faculty and the rich academic experience they design for our graduate students,” said Nancy Gonzales, executive vice president and university provost.
“We are also proud of the fact that the graduate degree programs that are ranked in this year’s U.S. News & World Report include a diversity of academic disciplines, all of which are committed to educating future experts and leaders who are prepared to make positive impact through their careers.”
Overall, 39 ASU programs were ranked in the top 20 nationwide.
Eleven are in the W. P. Carey School of Business. Besides the top-10 programs in supply chain management and project management, the others are: MBA in information systems, No. 11 (7); executive MBA, tied for No. 13 (18); MBA in business analytics, tied for No. 13 (10); MBA in accounting, tied for No. 14 (12); MBA in production and operations, tied for No. 16 (11); MBA in management, tied for No. 16 (16); part-time MBA, No. 18 (22); MBA in international business, tied for No. 20 (20); and MBA in marketing, tied for No. 20 (20).
The School of Public Affairs has 10 top-20 programs, including the overall program ranking of No. 12 (13), tied with seven universities, including Carnegie Mellon, Georgetown and Princeton, and ahead of Ohio State, Duke and Columbia. Besides the seven in the top 10 listed above, the others are public finance, tied for No. 12 (16), and public policy analysis, tied for No. 19 (20).
Seven are in the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College, including the overall program ranking of No. 12, tied with the University of Washington and ahead of Johns Hopkins and the University of Texas. The overall program ranked No. 11 last year. The others are: curriculum and instruction, tied for No. 11(14); elementary education, No. 12 (7); special education, No. 12 (11); educational administration, tied for No. 15 (14); educational psychology, tied for No. 17 (25); and secondary teacher education, No. 17 (12).
Besides the No. 4-ranked program in legal writing, the other top-20 programs in the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law are: health care law, tied for No. 13 (16); dispute resolution, tied for No. 13 (14); and environmental law, tied for No. 17 (20).
The Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering had two top-20 programs: environmental engineering, tied for No. 16 (20), and industrial engineering, No. 18 (18).
And besides the top-10 programs in geochemistry, geology and environmental sciences, the overall earth sciences graduate programs in the School of Earth and Space Exploration were ranked No. 12, tied with Harvard, Brown, Princeton, the University of California at Los Angeles, the University of California at San Diego and the University of Wisconsin at Madison, and ahead of Yale and Cornell. And the geophysics degree program was tied at No. 17.
ASU had 33 graduate degree programs in the top 20 last year.
“Graduate education is critical to ASU’s success and commitment to advancing research and the discovery of public value, so we are thrilled to see our efforts to build outstanding graduate programs for our students recognized in the national rankings,” said Elizabeth Wentz, vice provost and dean of the Graduate College at ASU. “The current rankings are a testament to our exceptional faculty, students, staff and alumni.”
The U.S. News & World Report rankings are based on two types of data: expert opinion about program excellence and statistical indicators about the schools’ faculty, research and students.
ASU individual graduate degree programs that were in the top 50 of the magazine’s rankings include: social policy, tied for No. 22; entrepreneurship, tied for No. 23; education policy, No. 25; aerospace engineering, tied for No. 27; computer engineering, tied for No. 27; social work, tied for No. 28; criminal law, tied for No. 28; full-time MBA, tied for No. 29; civil engineering, tied for No. 30; full-time law, tied for No. 30; international law, tied for No. 32; electrical engineering, tied for No. 34; materials engineering, tied for No. 35; economics, tied for No. 38; tax law, tied for No. 39; psychology, tied for No. 39; constitutional law, tied for No. 40; overall engineering, No. 40, the college’s highest ever overall ranking; mechanical engineering, tied for No. 41; commercial law, tied for No. 45; nursing, doctor of nursing practice, tied for No. 47; chemical engineering, tied for No. 48; physics, tied for No. 48; nursing, master’s, No. 49; computer science, tied for No. 49.
Top photo by Charlie Leight/ASU News
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Arizona State University’s Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College placed No. 12 in U.S. News & World Report’s 2023 Best Graduate Schools of Education rankings among 279 universities that participated in the rankings survey. Among public universities, the college was ranked No. 5, ahead of the University of California-Berkeley, the University of Texas-Austin and the University of Virginia. As …
Arizona State University’s Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College placed No. 12 in U.S. News & World Report’s 2023 Best Graduate Schools of Education rankings among 279 universities that participated in the rankings survey. Among public universities, the college was ranked No. 5, ahead of the University of California-Berkeley, the University of Texas-Austin and the University of Virginia.
As one of the few colleges of education in the country that excels at both teacher preparation and world-class scholarly research, MLFTC consistently ranks first in education-related funded research. ASU reported a total of $73.5 million in funded research related to education, earning it the No. 1 spot in the survey. 
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With 4,833 students enrolled in graduate programs in 2021, the college reported the largest enrollment among all universities ranked.
“Rankings don’t tell the whole story,” said Carole Basile, dean of Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College. “But they do tell a story. If a school consistently knocks on the door of the U.S. News top 10 while explicitly rejecting the culture of selectivity and exclusion that has so distorted higher ed, it’s probably doing something right. And it’s probably doing the things that matter most right.”
The rankings identified the following graduate specialty programs as among the top in the nation:
- No. 11 – Best Master’s in Curriculum and Instruction Programs.
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No. 12 – Best Master’s in Elementary Education Programs.
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No. 12 – Best Master’s in Special Education Programs.
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No. 15 – Best Master’s in Educational Administration Programs.
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No. 17 – Best Master’s in Secondary Education Programs.
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No. 25 – Best Master’s in Education Policy Programs.
No. 12 – Best Master’s in Elementary Education Programs.
No. 12 – Best Master’s in Special Education Programs.
No. 15 – Best Master’s in Educational Administration Programs.
No. 17 – Best Master’s in Secondary Education Programs.
No. 25 – Best Master’s in Education Policy Programs.
The college placed No. 11 in curriculum and instruction for its degrees in early childhood education and gifted education, which are both offered fully online. Degrees in autism spectrum disorders, applied behavior analysis, special education and teacher certification earned the college the No. 12 ranking in special education, while the Master of Education in Elementary Education and Master of Education in Elementary Education (Teacher Certification) ranked No. 12 elementary education programs.
The college is ranked No. 8 in the U.S. News ranking of online education programs, making it one of only four universities ranked in the top 15 in both the overall graduate rankings and the online master’s degree rankings (joined by the University of Georgia, the University of Virginia and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign).
The college now offers its graduate-level teacher preparation programs in two online formats. Arizona residents can choose between either the asynchronous format delivered via ASU Online or a synchronous format delivered via ASU Sync. Students who reside outside Arizona can take classes asynchronously. In both modalities, students complete professional residencies in-person in schools near where they live.
“It’s important for us to be excellent, and it’s important for us to be accessible,” Basile said. “Accessibility means we pride ourselves on whom we include. It also means we continue to work hard to design our curricula and our formats in ways that make our programs accessible to as many learners as possible so they, in turn, can help strengthen as many communities as possible.
“By putting our outstanding graduate-level teacher-prep programs online, for instance, we have made it easier for school (human resource) managers who have been forced to hire people on emergency or temporary certification to consider sending those educators to us so they can complete their preparation.”
Read more: U.S. News & World Report ranks 13 ASU graduate programs in top 10 nationwide, 39 in the top 20
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