Florida Atlantic University was ranked No. 63 in the country for economic mobility in a recent national ranking of higher education institutions by Third Way, a public policy think tank.

More than 1,300 universities and colleges appeared in the inaugural ranking report “Out With the Old, In With the New: Rating Higher Ed by Economic Mobility.” The report focuses on how well a school enables lower-to-middle income students to advance their opportunities in life through a college degree.

“We are proud to be recognized in this new national ranking for the opportunities we provide to our diverse student body,” Bret Danilowicz, Ph.D., FAU provost and vice president for academic affairs, said. “As a federally-designated Hispanic-serving institution that has eliminated equity gaps, FAU opens up economic advancement to anyone seeking a better life.”

The publishers developed an Economic Mobility Index to “determine the return on investment that the average low-income student obtains from attending a particular institution of higher education,” according to Michael Itzkowitz, senior fellow at Third Way. To do this, they employ a formulary that determines a “Price-to-Earnings Premium” and combines this with a look at the proportion of Pell Grant-eligible (lower income) students a university enrolls.

The Third Way decided to produce this ranking because as Itzkowitz wrote, “The reach, willingness, and ability to serve low-and moderate-income students well all combine to create the kind of socioeconomic mobility that institutions of higher education were intended to produce—but that isn’t prioritized in traditional rankings.”

The complete ranking of higher education institutions by EMI can be downloaded here.

-FAU-