Woodbury University has been named the university with the highest percentage of international students — 24 percent – among all Western regional universities in U.S. News & World Report’s annual rankings (http://www.usnews.com/colleges). According to the publication, Woodbury ranked 66th among its Western regional peers.
“Diversity and inclusion have long been hallmarks of a Woodbury education and the 2018 U.S. News & World Report rankings affirm our strategic focus on these values,” said Dr. David Steele-Figueredo, Woodbury University President. “This is a challenging yet tremendously exciting time in which to be an international student at an American university. Diversity is fundamental to the American educational experience, and we at Woodbury are proud to be a beacon for international students.”
“Located in the heart of the Southern California creative economy, we are committed to cultivating students’ innate talents and providing the tools and guidance they need to become innovative professionals,” Steele-Figueredo said. “As our student/faculty ratio attests, we offer a personal, interactive learning environment that focuses on practice-based professional and liberal arts education. We add distinct value with our emphasis on faculty-student interaction and active support for student development and achievement.”
“In a global culture, befriending and learning to collaborate with students from other countries can be rewarding personally and professionally,” U.S. News said of its ranking of international student populations. “Here, [we have identified] the national universities and national liberal arts colleges with the largest proportions of international undergrads during the 2016-2017 academic year.”
First published in 1983, the U.S. News ranking system uses quantitative measures that education experts have proposed as reliable indicators of academic quality. Schools are categorized by their mission as defined by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching in 2010. Institutions in Woodbury’s “Regional University” category offer a broad scope of undergraduate degrees and some master’s degree programs but few, if any, doctoral programs. Regional universities are further divided and ranked in four geographical groups: North, South, Midwest and West. U.S. News then gathers data from each college on up to 16 indicators of academic excellence. Each factor is assigned a weight that reflects its judgment about how much a measure matters. Finally, the colleges and universities in each category are ranked against their peers, based on their composite weighted score. The complete report is available from U.S. News for a fee.