Strategic Goals

1. Create the most powerful learning experience possible for our students.
   
2. Recruit, retain and develop quality faculty, administration and staff in appropriate numbers.
   
3. Embrace and enhance diversity throughout the university's constituencies, culture, curriculum and outreach activities.
4. Create an educational environment that prepares our students to be global citizens.
   
5. Strengthen the university’s regional engagement and outreach activities.
   
6. Enhance the quality of UNCW’s environment and provide a sustainable campus that is attractive, functional and, above all, safe.
   
7. Ensure adequate resources to achieve university goals by increasing public financial support and private giving.

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UNCW Earns Top Rankings

Princeton Review

For the fourth consecutive year, UNCW has been named one of the nation’s “Best Value” Public Colleges and Universities by The Princeton Review. In its profile, The Princeton Review editors praised UNCW as a modern university that “remains true to its small school roots,” noting that most classes have less than 30 students even though nearly 2,000 new freshmen enter the school each fall. Students surveyed by The Princeton Review noted the quality of the faculty. MORE>>

Fulbright Scholars

With two faculty Fulbright awards for the 2011-12 academic year, UNC Wilmington is in an elite group of top Fulbright producers among master's institutions nationwide on a list developed by the Institute for International Education. The Fulbright Program is the flagship international educational exchange program sponsored by the U.S. government and designed to increase mutual understanding between the U.S. and other countries. MORE>>

U.S.News & World Report

The University of North Carolina Wilmington is tied with the College of Charleston as the number 4 public master's university in the South, according to the 2012 U.S. News & World Report rankings for regional universities. UNCW has been ranked in the top 10 of this elite listing for the last 14 years and was ranked number 5 on the list last year.
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Princeton Review

For the eighth consecutive year, the University of North Carolina Wilmington has been named one of 135 institutions by The Princeton Review to the "Best in the Southeast” section of its website feature, "2012 Best Colleges: Region by Region."

For its regional rankings, The Princeton Review asks students attending the schools to rate their own schools on several issues—from the accessibility of their professors to quality of the campus food—and answer questions about themselves, their fellow students and campus life. This student survey data is added to information collected directly from the schools, from visits to the schools, and from the opinions of The Princeton Review staff to determine the final listing for each region. MORE>>

Fiske Guide to Colleges

For the third consecutive year, the UNCW is part of the exclusive group of colleges and universities included in the Fiske Guide to Colleges.

Compiled by former New York Times education editor Edward B. Fiske, the Fiske Guide to Colleges 2012 is a selective, subjective and systematic look at 300+ universities in the U.S., Canada and Great Britain. Fiske aims to help readers discover the personality of a university based on subjects including student body, academics, social list, financial aid, campus setting, housing, food and extracurricular activities. MORE>>

Princeton Review

Once again, the University of North Carolina Wilmington was recognized by The Princeton Review as one of the best institutions in the nation to attend to pursue a Master's of Business Administration (MBA) degree. The professional MBA program in UNCW's Cameron School of Business is listed in the 2012 edition of The Princeton Review's "Best 294 Business Schools." It has been included six times in previous years. MORE>>

Poets & Writers

UNCW's Master of Fine Arts in creative writing program was named second in the nation for creative nonfiction in the 2011 MFA rankings in Poets & Writers magazine. One of the top publications in the creative writing profession, Poets & Writers published its latest rankings in the Sept./Oct. 2010 issue. The magazine also ranked UNCW’s overall creative writing program as one of the top 50 MFA programs in creative writing in the nation for the second year in a row.

It was named one of the "Five Top Innovative/Unique Programs in Creative Writing" in The Altantic magazine's 2007 Fiction Issue. (external link)

GI Jobs

UNCW was named by G.I. Jobs to its 2011 list of Military Friendly Schools. This list honors the top 15 percent of colleges, universities and trade schools that are "doing the most to embrace America's veterans as students," according to the magazine. MORE>>

UNCW has made numerous changes to its admissions and advising processes to better assist its military affiliated students, which include active duty, veterans and dependents of active duty. These changes were made to serve the university's current students and prepare for an expected influx of more than 11,000 marines and their families to Southeastern North Carolina. MORE>>

Kiplinger's

The University of North Carolina Wilmington is again ranked one of the "Best Values" among public universities in the nation and number two in North Carolina, according to Kiplinger's 2012 rankings. MORE>>

Forbes

UNCW is number 17 on Forbes' list of "America's Best College Buys." This ranking places UNCW in the magazine's top 20 among all colleges and universities in the U.S. for providing a high quality education at the lowest cost to students. MORE>>

President's Higher Education Community Service
Honor Roll

UNCW moved up in the honor roll world. Having been named to the President's Higher Education Community Service honor roll each year since its inception in 2006, the university was included this year on the "Honor Roll with Distinction." The national recognition, awarded by the Corporation for National and Community Service, is given to schools that are leaders among institutions of higher education for their support of volunteering, service learning and civic engagement. More than 7,000 students contributed more than 70,625 hours to volunteer and service learning projects during 2010-11, which is more than 20,000 more hours reported than last academic year. The economic value of that community service alone exceeds $1 million.  MORE >>

Peace Corps

UNCW is ranked 25th in the nation among medium-sized schools for producing undergraduate Peace Corps volunteers. Since the Peace Corps was founded in 1961, 123 UNCW alumni have volunteered. UNCW is one of only three North Carolina schools on the Peace Corps list and is the only N.C. school represented on the list of medium-sized institutions. MORE>>

Institute of International Education

UNCW jumped up four notches to ninth place in the 2010 Institute of International Education Open Doors rankings for master's institutions. This is a strong indication that the university is nurturing a culture of global preparedness and that that culture is gaining national attention. MORE>>