St. Edward’s University is now ranked as the number 15 university among Regional Universities West, according to U.S. News and World Report.

U.S. News ranks colleges based on assessment by administrators at peer institutions, retention of students, faculty resources, student selectivity, financial resources, alumni giving, graduation rate performance and high school counselor ratings of colleges, according to the report’s website.

Sr. Donna Jurick, the university’s provost and executive vice president, said that St. Edward’s has always been doing good things, but it has not always been recognized. She attributes the newfound recognition to the visible transformation of the campus and the university’s success in terms of student achievement and graduation rates.

“We ought to celebrate, as an institution, the fact that we’re recruiting good students, attaining good students and they’re graduating successfully,” Jurick said.

Jurick said another factor for the recent recognition is the good rapport the university has built with alumni. St. Edward’s has alumni groups nationwide and has made it a point to recruit students from all over the U.S., according to Jurick.

When Dr. George Martin became the president in 1999, Jurick says they created a 10-year-plan for the university that was highly enrollment driven.

“We’ve set goals and pursued them aggressively and deliberately, and we’ve reached those goals,” Martin said, on the 10-year-plan.

Martin suggested that part of the university’s rise in U.S. News’ ranking is due to the report’s change in methodology. Before, the report would look at the university’s graduation rate, but now they look at what each university’s expected graduation rate is and how well they perform in comparison. According to Martin, we are significantly outperforming what is expected.

“We also outperform. If you look at the state and national graduation rate, we are double digits above that,” Martin said.

Martin attributes the university’s rise in ranks to a conglomerate of factors, including student opinion, faculty sharing research, global initiative, winning awards and retention and graduation rates. Martin said, people across the board are agreeing that a St. Edward’s education is a high quality experience.

 “It is indicative of our promise of success for our students,” Martin said. “When a student enrolls in the university, the student should have a reasonable expectation of being successful at the university.”

This year, St. Edward’s was also recognized as an Up and Coming School by its peer universities for the third time in the last four years. In a survey, presidents, provosts and deans of admissions in the Western Region were asked to nominate institutions for innovative improvements in academics, faculty and student life.

“What makes me happy about it is I’ve been the vice president since 1988 and I think we are getting the recognition that we deserve, and it’s affirming that other institutions are recognizing what’s happening,” Jurick said.

When Lindsey Woelker, assistant director of Student Life and advisor to the Student Leadership Team, came to St. Edward’s three years ago, she said she had never seen or heard about other institutions having the type of leaderships programs St. Edward’s has.

Woelker says the key to the university’s growing recognition is the quality and type of programs it provides, as well as how St. Edward’s implements them. St. Edward’s co-curricular programs are lucky enough to have the support of campus faculty, according to Woelker. She also said she has noticed that peer institutions take notice when she speaks about the university’s leadership and transitional experiences programs.

“The support we can offer students through different years of their life, and even post-grad, is unique and becoming prominent at many universities,” Woelker said.

“We come to the front of their mind when they talk about an institution that’s exciting and moving forward,” Martin said. “I think the fact that we’ve stayed in the forefront is what’s bringing us national recognition.”

St. Edward’s has moved from number 21 to number 15, ascending six spots in the ranks since the 2012 report.