Points of Pride
Northern Arizona University offers a high-caliber global education set in the context of a tight-knit community of students, faculty, staff, and alumni. The university has achieved national distinction as a leader in a number of areas, and our faculty include internationally recognized experts in the fields of alternative energy, forestry, engineering, business, and more.
- U.S. News and World Report has ranked NAU’s undergraduate engineering program among the best in the nation for the fourth consecutive year.
- The April 2010 edition of Entrepreneur magazine lists The W.A. Franke College of Business among 15 graduate schools that students rated most highly for its marketing preparation. NAU’s ranking put it alongside programs at Harvard, Duke and Northwestern, among others.
- U.S. News & World Report has ranked Northern Arizona University’s graduate physical therapy program among the best in the nation.
- NAU’s School of Hotel and Restaurant Management ranks 11th in the world for research output over a 15 year period—making it the top-ranked undergraduate program by the Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Research (November 2009).
- NAU is one of only 12 colleges and universities in the nation, and the only one in the state of Arizona, to receive a multimillion-dollar NAUTeach grant that seeks to double the university’s number of students seeking to become science and math teachers.
- Northern Arizona University is listed among the best colleges in the nation for Native Americans, as reported in the American Indian Science and Engineering Society’s 2010-11 college guide, Winds of Change. In its annual list of the nation’s top 200 schools, NAU was recognized for its Native American student enrollment, and for having the programs and community support that encourage students to stay in college and graduate.
- Northern Arizona University accelerated master’s in business administration program has once again earned a spot on the Princeton Review's Best 300 Business Schools guide for 2011. Editors describe the school as offering outstanding facilities, a professional atmosphere, and a scenic backdrop.
- For that last four years, students from The W. A. Franke College of Business have been invited to Omaha, Nebraska to meet and have lunch with Berkshire Hathaway Chairman and CEO, Warren Buffet. Students participate in a two hour question and answer session and receive a tour of the national headquarters. This honor is extended to only a handful of business schools in the country.
- According to the Nations Survey of Student Engagement, graduating seniors have consistently ranked NAU higher than its Carnegie peer institutions in five key learning-centered areas, including Level of Academic Challenge, Active and Collaborative Learning, Student - Faculty Interaction, Enriching Education Experience, and Supportive Campus Environment.
- 96% of graduating seniors consistently rank their Northern Arizona University education experience at very high levels.
- The American Association of State Colleges and Universities has identified NAU as one of 11 publicly funded institutions nationwide that have proven effective in graduating Latino students.
- According to Diverse:Issues in Higher Education, in 2009 NAU ranked among top institutions for minority students earning degrees, including first in the nation for Master’s degrees awarded to Native American students, and tenth in the nation for Master’s degrees in education awarded to Hispanic students.
- 90% of NAU graduating seniors participate in research or capstone experience.
- Northern Arizona University and the Arizona Cancer Center recently received a $15.7 million grant from the National Cancer Institute to research and seek solutions to cancer disparities among Native American populations.
- Northern Arizona University was designated by the Department of Energy as the Western Regional Center of the National Institute for Climatic Change Research (NICCR) which covers thirteen U.S. states, including Alaska and Hawaii. NICCR researches the impact of climatic change on ecosystems, and on how altered ecosystems affect the climate system.
- NAU’s Climate Science and Solutions master’s program was one in only a handful of graduate programs in the United States to receive underwriting from the National Science Foundation.
- NAU’s Sustainable Energy Laboratory is leader in higher education for providing students with instructional research opportunities in renewable energy, specifically in the areas of wind mapping and wind integration.
- Conservation Biology ranked NAU in the Top 40 (of over 300 universities) for research productivity in the area of conservation biology.
- The School of Forestry is ranked No. 10 in the nation among forestry programs in an index measuring faculty scholarly output.
- The Center for International Education offers undergraduate and graduate students more than 200 study abroad programs in 45 countries around the world.
- The U.S. Department of State, under the auspices of the Council for International Exchange of Scholars, selected NAU as one of its top producers of Fulbright Scholars for 2009-10.
- Every summer, nursing and health science students earn credit while traveling to Kenya to participate in field research and community-based health initiatives.
- NAU’s Engineers without Borders chapter regularly travels to Africa and Central America, bringing critical expertise, supplies, and technology to communities with critical needs. Their most recent projects include designing and installing solar water pumps and building a local nursing facility for a village in Ghana.
- NAU is consistently ranked on the Peace Corps’ Top 25 list for providing international volunteers among colleges and universities of similar size.
- Every summer the School of Music and NAU Opera sponsor the “Flagstaff in Fidenza” program which brings highly talented young singers from all over the world to the culturally rich setting of Fidenza, Italy to further their operatic education. It prepares the singers for professional careers by providing them with intensive training and performance experiences.
- Northern Arizona University and President John Haeger were charter signatories of the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment that addresses climate change.
- Northern Arizona University has been listed in the Princeton Review’s Guide to 286 Green Colleges for demonstrating “an exemplary commitment to sustainability.”
- NAU is home to the greenest building in America and one of the top three ranked green buildings in the world. The Applied Research and Development building received a platinum rating from the U.S. Green Building Council and is one of four LEED-certified buildings on campus.
- NAU and its environmental science program were selected as one of eight host universities in the nation for the Doris Duke Conservation Fellows Program. NAU shares this honor with Yale, Cornell, and Duke University.
- Northern Arizona University was one of 15 institutions nationwide awarded a $1 million grant from the National Science Foundation to implement an educational outreach program that seeks to inspire interest among rural and Native students in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) programs, and to increase public awareness if global climate change.
Learn more about the University's living points of pride.
