Miami is No. 1 public university in the nation for its commitment to undergraduate teaching.
Miami is No. 1 public university in the nation for its commitment to undergraduate teaching.
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Creative teaching earns Miami No. 1 public university ranking for faculty commitment

Award-winning faculty

Learn more about some of our award-winning faculty nominated by Miami students:

Associated Student Government Outstanding Professor of the Year

Alumni Association Effective Educator Award

By Carole Johnson, university news and communication

It is faculty commitment to teaching that gives Miami University its No. 1 ranking among public colleges in the nation, according to a special list by U.S. News & World Report.

For the past eight years, Miami has ranked in the top five on U.S. News’ Best Colleges’ specialty list that recognizes public and private universities for an “unusually strong commitment to undergraduate teaching.”

This year, Miami is in the No. 5 spot, in good company with Princeton, Dartmouth, Brown and Rice universities.

“Miami’s student-centric experience is so successful because of the dedication of our faculty and staff, who care so deeply and who commit themselves so fully to our students,” said President Greg Crawford. “We are extremely proud to continue to be recognized as the finest public university in the nation for undergraduate teaching.

Miami recognized for top teaching

Miami’s overall ranking in the “Best National Universities” moves up one spot from last year to No. 78. Among public national universities, Miami is ranked No. 31. For the first time, Miami appears in the category for “Most International Students,” ranking No. 31. In the category of “Best Undergraduate Engineering Schools,” Miami rose to No. 29.

Also moving up is Miami’s Farmer School of Business at No. 45 in the category of “Best in Undergraduate Business,” again making the top 50 list of best business schools in the country. Miami’s 3+1 programs in accountancy and economics allow students to earn their undergraduate and masters’ degrees concurrently.

“We believe our one-of-a-kind first-year integrated core curriculum and the overwhelming percentage of our students who participate in internships, experiential and global experiences are the reasons so many employers seek our graduates,” said Marc Rubin, interim dean. “Our graduates join their organizations more like seasoned professionals than new hires.”

Amber Franklin

Amber Franklin challenges students to dream.

Faculty create a student-centric Miami experience

Faculty expertise in their areas of study is just part of what it takes to create a student-centric Miami experience.

Amber Franklin knows that developing one-on-one relationships with students fosters learning. She was named the 2017 Outstanding Professor of the Year by Miami’s Associated Student Government.

Sarah Chu, a 2017 graduate wrote in her nominating letter: “Dr. Franklin speaks a lot about how as women, we often sell ourselves short and question our competence,” Chu, a speech pathology and audiology major, enjoys the Spanish language and applied to bilingual graduate schools to further her studies in speech pathology. She is now attending Vanderbilt University.

“I never would have known that I could do it if I hadn’t taken this leap of faith, and Dr. Franklin was the reason that I took that step,” she said.

Mark Lacker

Mark Lacker challenges students to be entrepreneurs.

Mark Lacker knows that learning doesn’t just happen in the classroom. Lacker created the first successful Startup Weekend held solely for undergraduates interested in entrepreneurship.

Now an annual event, the weekend is an intense, 48-hour experience where student teams take their projects from a seed in their minds to a viable business strategy.

Lacker, The John W. Altman Clinical Professor of Entrepreneurship in the Miami University Institute for Entrepreneurship, received the 2016 Effective Educator Award from Miami’s Alumni Association.

"I say the same thing on the first day of every course, 'I’m not here to teach you. I’m here to help you learn,'" he said in an interview with The GarageGroup.com. "My students have a responsibility in their learning; it’s up to them to come prepared already having read through the material, and it’s my job to help them make better sense of it."