What are the best colleges and universities in Arkansas if you reward schools for making the best use of their limited resources? Academic Stewardship asks how effectively schools manage their financial and human resources to gain the influence that makes them academically excellent. Schools that are exemplary in Academic Stewardship are doing everything in their power to help students and faculty achieve their full potential.
Colleges and universities in Arkansas deserve to be recognized when they do more with less. It’s impressive when a large wealthy school can spend money lavishly on expensive buildings and programs. But it’s even more impressive when a small school with limited means is able to train and inspire students that the larger wealthier schools tend to ignore.
The American Association of Colleges and Universities reported in late 2021 that almost 75 percent of higher-education professionals at US colleges and universities felt financial constraints prevented their schools from effectively attracting students. Distracted by the size and amenities of larger schools, prospective students tended especially to be overawed by the big research universities.
Arkansas’s smaller colleges, especially its liberal arts colleges, need effective ways of communicating their value to a world that celebrates “bigger is better” and “you need the best.” Unfortunately, most college ranking companies, such as U.S. News & World Report, define “best” in a way that devalues schools with smaller budgets and fewer students even when these schools do remarkable work in advancing their students’ education. By and large, college rankings penalize schools that serve underserved populations.
Inspired by Malcolm Gladwell, who for years now has criticized conventional college rankings for misrepresenting what’s good and valuable in education, we decided to construct a new ranking metric that highlights those schools that do more with less. That metric—called the Academic Stewardship metric—takes away both the size and the wealth advantage of schools, and focuses instead on how well schools use the resources available to them to advance the education of their students.
As a metric, Academic Stewardship is defined by a precise mathematical formula, which can be found in our Academic Stewardship white paper. Measuring the Academic Stewardship of Arkansas’s colleges requires measuring two forms of stewardship: 1) Stewardship of financial resources (using the money they have responsibility without waste) and 2) Stewardship of human resources (doing their best to help students, faculty, and administration to flourish). Together, these two types of stewardship form what we call Academic Stewardship. If you want to learn more about the factors involved in Academic Stewardship, click the more button below.
Academic Stewardship as so defined is connected to keeping tuition and other costs down, but it should not be confused with affordability or frugality. The schools that this metric ranks as exemplary academic stewards tend to be all over the map when it comes to tuition and other costs. At issue is the influence of schools given the financial and human resources they have on hand. If a school is going to charge more for tuition, then that needs to be reflected in the school having proportionately greater influence.
The benefits of attending a school with strong academic stewardship include:
Tuition + fees
$33K
Acceptance
71%
Graduation
65%
Student body
1K
Median SAT/ACT
1255/29
Hendrix College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$8K
Acceptance
60%
Graduation
39%
Student body
2K
Median SAT/ACT
970/18
University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$7K
Acceptance
75%
Graduation
34%
Student body
3K
Median SAT/ACT
1044/21
Henderson State University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$10K
Acceptance
56%
Graduation
42%
Student body
7K
University of Arkansas at Little Rock’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$22K
Acceptance
55%
Graduation
72%
Student body
5K
Median SAT/ACT
1165/25
Harding University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$7K
Acceptance
67%
Graduation
53%
Student body
12K
Median SAT/ACT
1116/24
Arkansas State University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$9K
Acceptance
94%
Graduation
46%
Student body
9K
Median SAT/ACT
1060/24
University of Central Arkansas’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$9K
Acceptance
78%
Graduation
68%
Student body
25K
Median SAT/ACT
1210/26
University of Arkansas’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$9K
Acceptance
69%
Graduation
43%
Student body
4K
Median SAT/ACT
1067/21
Southern Arkansas University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$6K
Graduation
31%
Student body
5K
University of Arkansas–Fort Smith’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$8K
Graduation
22%
Student body
5K
University of Arkansas Grantham’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Colleges and universities in Arkansas are uniquely affordable, with just under half providing tuition rates of $9,000 or less. We’ve also found 7 high quality olleges offering online degree programs in Arkansas. Included in this list are the state’s two largest universities, the University of Arkansas and Arkansas State University. Though students can find some overlapping degree programs at the two schools, each has its specialties. For example, students hoping to pursue degrees in architecture, agriculture, or business may want to consider the University of Arkansas, while those interested in biology, nursing, or political science may want to attend Arkansas State University.
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Additionally, about one third of the schools in Arkansas have a religious affiliation. Student populations at these schools range from just under 200 students up to 5,000, and allow students to pursue degrees merging religious studies with fields like chemistry and history. While tuition at each of the state’s 12 private schools varies greatly, costing anywhere between $9,000 and $46,000, many of these colleges boast high graduation rates and small class sizes.
While Arkansas is perhaps best-known and loved for countless lakes, Hot Springs National Park, and the United States’ only active diamond mine. The Natural State houses many higher education institutes where students can earn associate, bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees in a full range of disciplines.
With so many affordable schools and competitive degree programs, students attending school in Arkansas have the luxury of combining their individual budget needs with their desired degree paths. For more information on attending school in Arkansas, check out some of the state’s top schools.