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
40%
Student body
1K
Median SAT/ACT
1050/21
Friends University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$32K
Acceptance
99%
Graduation
62%
Student body
2K
Median SAT/ACT
1040/21
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
98%
Graduation
63%
Student body
2K
Median SAT/ACT
1195/25
Benedictine College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$7K
Acceptance
88%
Graduation
50%
Student body
5K
Emporia State University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$8K
Acceptance
94%
Graduation
52%
Student body
7K
Pittsburg State University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$9K
Acceptance
91%
Graduation
48%
Student body
11K
Median SAT/ACT
1135/23
Wichita State University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$5K
Acceptance
90%
Graduation
50%
Student body
10K
Fort Hays State University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$10K
Acceptance
96%
Graduation
68%
Student body
17K
Kansas State University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$11K
Acceptance
92%
Graduation
66%
Student body
22K
Median SAT/ACT
1195/25
University of Kansas’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$29K
Acceptance
47%
Graduation
43%
Student body
<1K
Median SAT/ACT
990/21
Sterling College ’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$28K
Graduation
64%
Student body
<1K
Hesston College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$31K
Acceptance
68%
Graduation
39%
Student body
<1K
Kansas Wesleyan University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$37K
Acceptance
67%
Graduation
34%
Student body
<1K
Median SAT/ACT
870/20
Ottawa University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Prospective students searching for both brick-and-mortar and online colleges in Kansas can choose from a wide range of excellent schools. The Sunflower State offers a wide range of highly accessible public options for Kansas students seeking undergraduate and graduate degrees in a wide range of disciplines.
Kansas is noted for its 23 community and technical colleges. These institutions provide numerous pathways to traditional and online degree programs, and well as online certificate programs for working professionals.
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. This means there are plenty of options for Kansas students seeking an on-campus experience and in state tuition rates.
It should also be noted that online students attending public colleges in Kansas are also entitled to in state tuition rates.
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Kansas is also home to 22 private higher education institutions, with tuition ranging from $7,000 to $31,000.
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.
Kansas boasts an array of affordable options for both on-campus and online learners. The average tuition for a year of college in Kansas is $9,230, which is below the national average.
Kansas awards associate, bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees in popular fields of study, like economics, health services administration, early childhood education, elementary education, business administration, and more. Specialized degrees include aerospace engineering at the University of Kansas and agribusiness from Kansas State University.
Students who earn degrees in the medical and health care fields may have access to loan forgiveness-based programs, such as the National Health Service Corps Loan Repayment Program. This financial aid program 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 this midwestern state is also known for its mouth-watering barbecue, open plains, and vast sunflower fields. Prospective students can also choose from traditional and online schools and universities across the state of Kansas.
See what Kansas has to offer by checking out the top undergraduate and graduate degrees, as well as unique educational opportunities like online certificate programs and degree completion programs.