UNC graduate programs are very well represented in the 2016 edition of “America’s Best Graduate Schools” from the US News and World Report.

The new honors for UNC graduate programs includes the school of medicine, public health, nursing, business, law, and education – with specialty areas recognized within each department.

UNC Provost James Dean says the school is quite proud of the rankings.

“We have a lot of very strong graduate programs, and they generally are recognized by the US News rankings,” he says. “But you can never take it for granted.

“It’s possible that other competitors come in, and you move down. Or that something goes wrong within your own school and you move down.”

Dean adds the rankings vary among the different disciplines, from very subjective views to more objective factors.

He says the precedent is for UNC to be involved in the discussion among the top programs in the country.

“I think it’s fair to say that we do expect to be recognized. That’s because of the quality of the programs,” he says. “You get accustomed to being ranked among the top schools in the country, but you’re never comfortable.

“You always have to worry about what else you can do, and what other schools might be doing, and what you need to do in order to compete.”

Dean says one note he is especially proud of is the breadth of fields the university was recognized for.

“It says that we’re a very comprehensive university. We have programs in almost all of the fields that US News ranks,” he says. “I think the exception is engineering, and there might be another one.

“It’s an expensive business to run graduate schools that comprehensively. And so we’re grateful for the support of the people of North Carolina, who have supported the university for so long through their elected representatives.”

In recent weeks, the graduate programs at UNC have been under scrutiny after revelations that exceptions were made to allow student-athletes into programs. Dean says he doesn’t feel the lingering academic scandal plays any role in the evaluation of graduate programs offered at Carolina.

“The things that happened, happened some time ago. They ended years ago,” he says. “And in the case of any implications for our graduate programs, I think that story identified one or two students out of tens of thousands of students that we’ve had over that period of time.

“It’s certainly not anything systematic.”

US News has ranked graduate programs annually since 1990.

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