The Purdue IE undergraduate program still ranks No. 2 (2021, published in September 2020) and the Purdue IE Graduate program is ranked #6 (2021, published in March 2020).

“I am extremely blessed to be a part of this. So far my education has been fantastic and I’ve learned more than I could imagine.” Austen Horton, a Multi-Functional Financial Analyst Associate at Lockheed Martin is pursuing his Master's of Science in Industrial Engineering at Purdue University College of Engineering on line.

Horton, an experienced professional engineer, is not alone in that evaluation.

As they did in 2020, Purdue's online graduate engineering programs rank third overall in U.S. News & World Report's latest ranking of the Best Online Programs in the nation. Electrical Engineering, Industrial Engineering and Mechanical Engineering all ranked No. 1 in their categories.

Purdue's overall online graduate engineering programs ranked behind only Columbia University and the University of California, Los Angeles. U.S. News & World Report ranked 97 colleges and universities with online graduate engineering programs. The 2021 rankings were released Tuesday (Jan. 26) and can be viewed here.

In the specialty online engineering graduate program rankings, Purdue ranked second in Civil Engineering and third in both online engineering programs for veterans and online engineering management programs, in addition to the first-place rankings for Electrical Engineering, Industrial Engineering and Mechanical Engineering.

“Learning is a lifelong joy that a land-grant university like Purdue can sustain through online opportunities,” said Mung Chiang, the John A. Edwardson Dean of the College of Engineering and Roscoe H. George Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering. “With leadership from Gerry McCartney and Dimitri Peroulis and their teams, Purdue Engineering has been advancing online learning with excellence and scale. From affordable master’s degrees to industry co-hosted badges, from global university partnerships to virtual lab pedagogy, we will continue to innovate learning for everyone.”

Peroulis, the Michael and Katherine Birck Head of the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering and special advisor to the dean of engineering for online learning, said, “Our faculty have created a number of high-quality programs that meet the needs of working professionals across multiple fields. We are proud of the growing learning community of our online students who work earnestly and persistently to earn the same degrees as our on-campus students.”

McCartney, executive vice president for Purdue Online, said, “The College of Engineering is on the leading edge of Purdue's initiative to greatly expand its online presence and to serve all types of students, with a special emphasis on working professionals. These latest rankings speak to the effectiveness of Engineering's efforts, and I don’t doubt that there’s more where that came from.”

The organizers of the annual U.S. News rankings analyze data on such factors as the quality of students entering a program; online teaching practices so students stay enrolled and graduate; how the programs employ technologies to allow students flexibility and enable learning; student support services, career guidance, financial aid resources, student indebtedness; and more.

Also weighed are faculty credentials and training, including the degree to which online instructors’ credentials mirror those of on-campus faculty and the training instructors receive to teach distance learners.

In addition, U.S. News conducts a peer assessment survey of high-ranking academic officials — in the case of the engineering rankings, deans of engineering schools and top online learning officials — as an important element of reviewing Purdue and other institutions for ranking.

Purdue’s College of Education graduate education programs are fifth in educational/instructional media design, 10th in curriculum and instruction programs, 11th in special education programs, 19th in administration and supervision programs, and fifth in online master’s education programs for veterans. Purdue is 42nd overall in online education master’s programs.

Writer: Greg Kline, 765-494-8167, gkline@purdue.edu  & Julia Sibley, 765-490-4672, jmsibley@purdue.edu

Sources: Mung Chiang, deanofengineering@purdue.edu

Gerry McCartney, mccart@purdue.edu

Dimitrios Peroulis, dperouli@purdue.edu