Fort Hays State University’s reputation as a national leader in the quality of its Virtual College programs was bolstered again this week when it was ranked the best college in Kansas for online education.

TheBestSchools.org ranked FHSU No. 1 in an article, “The Best Online College in Each of America’s Fifty States.”

“We believe that many prospective students are in positions in which they need to earn their degree online,” said Wayne Downs, managing editor of TheBestSchools.org. “However, that doesn’t mean they don’t want a school close to them in case they want to use the library, visit a professor or participate in other events. This was our primary motivation for producing this article.”

TheBestSchools.org selected FHSU’s program based on several weighted factors, including academic excellence, course and degree offerings, faculty strengths, and reputation — especially reputation for online degree programs.

Here is the link to the article:
http://www.thebestschools.org/features/best-online-college-in-each-american-state/

“We are always gratified when an independent organization recognizes our educational excellence,” said Dr. Mirta M. Martin, FHSU president. “It is important to emphasize that this honor also reflects on the excellence of our on-campus offerings, because our core faculty develop the courses they teach both in the traditional classroom and online.”

Dennis King, director of the Virtual College, noted that the online students include a very special cohort — members of the Armed Forces at home and abroad. “We have been recognized as a military-friendly school for several years by GI Jobs Magazine,” he said, pointing out that the criteria for making the Military Friendly Schools list includes efforts to recruit and retain military and veteran students.

King also stated that in addition to excellence, FHSU offers exceptionally low tuition to its online students. “We are in the lowest 1 percent nationally in terms of online tuition,” King said. “This means our students are getting a top-tier education at the most affordable price.”

FHSU’s recognition as the best university in Kansas for online education was just the latest in a continuing series of such honors.

Most recently, just last month, TheBestSchools.org ranked FHSU’s online M.S. in educational administration as No. 16 in the nation. It was selected based on academic excellence, course offerings, faculty strengths and reputation.

Earlier this year, U.S. News & World Report recognized FHSU as the top university in Kansas and one of the elite universities in the nation for the quality of its online education programs.

The news magazine evaluated online higher education in six categories. FHSU offers courses in four of those categories. All four were rated among the best in the nation. For online bachelor’s degrees, FHSU ranked 16th. For online master’s degrees in education, FHSU ranked 20th. For online master’s degrees in business, FHSU ranked 64th. For online master’s degrees in nursing, FHSU ranked 71st.
FHSU was the top ranked university in the state of Kansas for each category except online nursing, where the University of Kansas was ranked 24th.

Of equal importance, the online courses and degrees offered by Fort Hays State through its Virtual College are less expensive than every one of the universities that were ranked as high or higher than FHSU in the U.S. News survey.

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Story from Fort Hays State University Relations