High-quality learning experiences, faculty excellence help OSU Ecampus earn No. 8 ranking
Bolstered by the expertise of the faculty who develop and teach classes online, Oregon State University has earned another top ranking from U.S. News & World Report as one of the nation’s best providers of online education.
Oregon State ranks No. 8 in the category of Best Online Bachelor’s Programs for 2023. This marks the university’s ninth consecutive year in the top 10. That’s a claim no other public institution in the country can make.
OSU Ecampus, the university’s online education division, partners with more than 1,200 Oregon State faculty members to develop and deliver programs and courses at a distance. OSU offers 44 bachelor’s degrees online in fields ranging from botany and kinesiology to natural resources and contemporary music industry. And Oregon State is one of the only universities in the nation to deliver an online honors degree, in partnership with the OSU Honors College.
These ongoing efforts to deliver the best online degrees reach Ecampus students in all 50 states and more than 60 countries on five continents.
Why Oregon State Ecampus ranks well
“Giving students everywhere access to the highest-quality learning experiences online is at the core of our everyday work with OSU faculty,” said Ecampus Associate Provost Lisa L. Templeton. “This ranking is a testament to that shared mission, and we’re proud to again be recognized as a national leader in online teaching and learning.”
U.S. News & World Report evaluated the online bachelor’s programs of nearly 400 higher education institutions. They judged schools on four factors: student engagement; faculty credentials and training; services and technologies; and peer assessment.
Overall, Oregon State received a score of 96 out of 100. As in previous years, the university received its highest marks for faculty expertise as well as Ecampus’ ability to prepare those instructors to teach online.
“The passionate faculty members really are the gem of Oregon State,” said Karen Baek, who completed her OSU psychology bachelor’s degree online in 2022. “They never pushed me aside. They made every effort to make me feel included, and all the way in southern California, they made me feel like a part of Oregon State.”
Additional top rankings
OSU features prominently in four more best online degrees rankings released by U.S. News & World Report:
- No. 1 in the nation for Best Online Psychology Bachelor’s Programs; the College of Liberal Arts program ranked second the previous two years.
- No. 5 in the category of Best Online Business Bachelor’s Programs, a distinction that applies to all eight College of Business undergraduate degrees that OSU offers online.
- 11th in the category of Best Online Bachelor’s Programs for Veterans
- 19th in the category of Best Online Graduate Engineering Programs; the College of Engineering offers master’s degrees online in engineering management and radiation health physics.
In the 2021-22 academic year, Ecampus served 12,836 individual students exclusively online. Among those who enrolled, 75% were pursuing an Oregon State bachelor’s degree online.
