A report released in January by U.S. News and World Report ranks UND’s College of Business and Public Administration online program as No. 32 in the country out of almost 1,000 schools who participated in a survey conducted by the magazine. Only programs that offer degrees entirely online were considered in the rankings.

The online program at UND offers a master’s degree in business and economics. The program started in the fall 2007 semester, and is not the typical online program some universities offer. Students who are not on campus for classes are required to login to a website when a professor is holding class in order to better interact with the professor and material.

The program for the business degree currently has 115 students, and the economics program has about 50 students. The total enrollment for the online program is 204 students.

“One hundred and fifteen is probably our capacity (for the business program),” Garske said. “It’s been relatively steady in the past, and this way we can be more selective with our admissions.”

The magazine also included individual statistics for categories and UND ended up with high numbers for some of those categories. Over the four-year period studied, UND’s program had an 82 to 97 percent retention rate for students. The graduation rates were also very high, with the most frequent amount of time for graduation at two years, and 79 percent graduating within three years.

“Those numbers really stood out to me,” Garske said. “They are a lot higher than the undergraduate rates.”

The high ranking also puts UND’s online program on the national map.

“It’s good publicity for us,” Garske said. “It’s nice to be able to say and be able to draw more attention to the program.”

Megan Hoffman is a staff writer for The Dakota Student. She can be reached at [email protected].