CONTACT: Tory Olson, 515-271-1834, tory.olson@drake.edu
DRAKE JOINS NATIONAL INITIATIVE TO OFFER IMPROVED CONSUMER RESOURCES
Drake University is participating in the University & College Accountability Network (U-CAN), a national Web-based project among more than 550 member colleges and universities, that will share data to make it easy for prospective students and parents judge the quality of schools.
Designed by the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities (NAICU), U-CAN gives free, concise, Web-based and consumer-friendly information about private colleges and universities, without rankings or reputation surveys. Through the initiative, Drake and other institutions will offer consumers profiles with comparable data from the U.S. Department of Education’s Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) survey and the Common Data Set.
Hyperlinks to campus information will offer topics including admissions, academics, enrollment, class size, costs and financial aid, accreditation, student demographics, fields of study, faculty information, class size, student life, campus housing, transfer credit information and campus safety.
Although U-CAN will include some of the same measures found in U.S. News and World Report’s annual ranking of America’s Best Colleges, it also includes other fundamental school information about internships, study abroad programs, graduate school preparation, career placement services and more.
Where U.S. News ranks more than 1,400 colleges and universities by region and categories such as acceptance rate and graduation rate, U-CAN puts all of this comparable school data in one place with links for additional information about each school on the college or university’s Web site at no cost to users or participating institutions.
“Our mission to provide an exceptional learning environment drives everything that we do at Drake, and while we are grateful for the recognition by U.S. News & World Report and other national media, ultimately the most important feedback for us is the fact that our students, their parents and our alumni tell us that we are keeping the promise of that mission,” Drake President David Maxwell said.
Drake has a strong commitment to providing useful and clear information to its various constituencies. Drake provides a data book on the Drake Web site with statistics on enrollment, graduation and retention rates, tuition and fees, common fields of study, faculty profiles and diversity profiles, as well as a new page with student outcomes information online.
For more information on U-CAN, visit the Web site. Drake’s information is also available on the U-CAN Web site, and additional information on the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities is available online.