What are the best colleges and universities in Kansas 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 Kansas 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.
Kansas’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 Kansas’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
$31K
Acceptance
58%
Graduation
42%
Student body
2K
Median SAT/ACT
1050/22
Friends University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$32K
Acceptance
93%
Graduation
62%
Student body
2K
Median SAT/ACT
1085/22
Baker University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$9K
Graduation
51%
Student body
4K
Washburn University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$33K
Acceptance
97%
Graduation
65%
Student body
2K
Median SAT/ACT
1185/24
Benedictine College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$7K
Acceptance
86%
Graduation
46%
Student body
5K
Median SAT/ACT
1002/22
Emporia State University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$8K
Acceptance
91%
Graduation
53%
Student body
6K
Median SAT/ACT
1050/21
Pittsburg State University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$8K
Acceptance
80%
Graduation
48%
Student body
12K
Median SAT/ACT
1150/23
Wichita State University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$5K
Acceptance
91%
Graduation
46%
Student body
10K
Fort Hays State University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$10K
Acceptance
94%
Graduation
68%
Student body
18K
Kansas State University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$11K
Acceptance
91%
Graduation
63%
Student body
23K
University of Kansas’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$29K
Acceptance
37%
Graduation
47%
Student body
<1K
Median SAT/ACT
985/20
Sterling College ’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$28K
Graduation
63%
Student body
<1K
Hesston College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$31K
Acceptance
62%
Graduation
47%
Student body
<1K
Median SAT/ACT
1041/21
Kansas Wesleyan University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$37K
Acceptance
70%
Graduation
37%
Student body
<1K
Median SAT/ACT
975/19
Ottawa University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Beyond the 23 community and technical colleges, Kansas also has nine public universities, the largest being the University of Kansas (KU) with over 28,000 students. The school’s main campus is located in Lawrence, Kansas, but there are four other locations where students can attend KU classes: Overland Park, Kansas City, Wichita, and Salina. Kansas is also home to 22 private higher education institutions, with tuition ranging from $7,000 to $31,000.
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In addition, students can choose from one of 18 religiously affiliated schools, including Newman University, Wichita — a Catholic liberal arts university serving the state’s largest private school student population at just over 2,000. Just under the national tuition average at $9,230, Kansas is also an affordable state in which to earn your degree. The state awards associate, bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees in common fields of study, like economics, nursing, business, and education. Specialized degrees include aerospace engineering at the University of Kansas and agribusiness from Kansas State University. Those in the medical and health fields can check out loan forgiveness programs, such as the National Health Service Corps Loan Repayment Program, which awards up to $50,000, tax free, for those who serve two years at an approved site.
Arguably, it was the 1939 cinema classic, The Wizard of Oz, that put Kansas on the map. But The Sunflower State is also known for its mouth-watering barbecue, open plains, and vast sunflower fields. Prospective students can also choose from 50 colleges and universities across this Midwestern state.
See what Kansas has to offer by checking out the top programs and career paths available.