Two online programs at UC Riverside’s Bourns College of Engineering were categorized as 2023 U.S. News Best Online Programs.
The two programs are both graduate-level, in computer information technology, or CIT, and engineering. CIT was named No. 18, and engineering No. 34.
For the 2023 edition U.S. News ranked 1,763 online degree programs. According to a U.S. News explanation of its ranking methodology, the rankings measure overall academic quality at the baccalaureate and master's levels across disciplines.
Among those ranked are degree-granting programs housed at regionally accredited institutions that predominantly offer online classes needed to complete the degree. A program still qualifies as an online program if it has sporadic in-person attendance requirements such as orientation and testing.
Indicators distinct to the Best Online Programs rankings include measures of services offered remotely, available technologies, and course-delivery best practices.
“The Best Online Programs rankings measure whether online degree programs have academic standards commensurate with quality brick-and-mortar programs that are properly adapted toward the unique pedagogy of distance education,” U.S. News editors wrote in a descriptor of the 2023 edition.
For both the CIT and engineering programs, engagement accounted for 25% of a program’s score, and includes factors such as accessibility, use of certified courses, course evaluation rate, ethics considerations, graduation rate, class size, retention, and how long it takes students to complete their coursework. Peer assessment accounts for 25% of the ranking; faculty credentials, 25%; student excellence, including GPA and acceptance rate, 12.5%; and services and technologies, including indebtedness, the program’s support services, and software and streaming capabilities, 12.5%.
The 2022-23 college rankings cycle has included many accolades for UCR. Among them are No. 1 public university for social mobility in the U.S. News rankings; No. 33 public in Forbes’ rankings; No. 31 public in Money magazine’s rankings; top 1.3% among universities worldwide by the Center for World University Rankings; No. 7 in U.S. News among most diverse medical schools; No. 23 in Princeton Review’s best-value colleges, and No. 9 public university in Princeton Review’s Guide to Green Colleges.
