College of Business undergraduate, graduate programs make strides in national, international rankings

The University of Akron (UA)’s College of Business continues to receive national and international recognition for its renowned undergraduate and graduate programs.

The University’s undergraduate business program recently received a high ranking in the 2025 Poets & Quants list of undergraduate business schools. Poets & Quants ranked the College of Business No. 95 in the country, placing the college in the top five schools in Ohio (public and private) and No. 1 in Northeast Ohio. Within the ranking data, UA was No. 80 in admissions standards and No. 83 in career outcomes.

“Given that this ranking system takes into account admission standards and career outcomes, along with academic experience, we are pleased to find ourselves in line with and ahead of some of the country’s largest public and private colleges and universities,” said Dr. James B. Thomson, interim dean and senior associate dean of the College of Business. “Our students come to UA to ‘Experience Business,’ that is, for a high quality and affordable business education, knowing they will be supported as they enter the workforce or move on to graduate education.”

UA’s online and part-time Master of Business Administration (MBA) programs had impressive increases in their 2025 rankings.

U.S. News & World Report rated UA’s part-time MBA program No. 143 in 2025, an increase of 40 spots compared to 2024, and is the highest-ranked part-time MBA at a public university in Northeast Ohio. The online MBA program is No. 212 in 2025, an increase of more than 50 spots from 2024.

U.S. News and World Report annually evaluates and ranks graduate programs in professional areas based on criteria such as employment outcomes of graduates.

In another strong ranking, the MBA program was once again listed as a Tier 1 program, and the online MBA was No. 77 in the world, according to CEO Magazine’s global ratings of the top MBA programs.

“We are thrilled to once again be ranked as one of the world’s top MBA, and best part-time and online MBA programs,” Thomson said. “These distinctions place us among a very select group of MBA programs. Moreover, this external recognition of the high-quality of our MBAs enhances our ability to attract top students to what are our fastest-growing programs.”

CEO Magazine, an international publication based in London, uses a ranking system geared and weighted toward fact-based criteria to provide potential students with a performance benchmark for those schools under review. The rankings take into account data points that include quality of faculty, international diversity, class size, accreditation, faculty-student ratio, tuition costs and international exposure.

For the traditional MBA rankings, schools are ranked as Tier One or Tier Two based on their overall percentage score from the data points. This year, the magazine ranked 153 colleges and universities in 24 countries offering 309 programs.

The UA College of Business is accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business(AACSB), which is considered the gold standard for students seeking the finest education and companies seeking cutting-edge talent. The College is also among less than 1% of business schools worldwide to receive dual accreditation in both business and accounting.  

Media contact: Cristine Boyd; cboyd@uakron.edu; 330-972-6476