New rankings give mostly high rankings to local universities for adaptability

New rankings by Educate To Career attempt to rate the response of four-year colleges and universities to the changes forced by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Wilkes, Misericordia and Marywood universities were all deemed “Tier 1” in a system with four tiers.

King’s College and the University of Scranton both landed in Tier 4. And while some Penn State campuses were ranked, neither local campus in Hazleton or Lehman Township were on the list.

The California-based non-profit ETC touts itself as having created a new system in 2014 that “revolutionized college rankings” because it gauged a school’s ability to graduate students at a reasonable total cost while helping them land a decent-paying job.

The new rankings looked at how flexible a college or university has been in adapting to the changes forced by the pandemic, particularly after schools started closing in March and switched to online-only lessons.

“With the COVID crisis everything has changed regarding college selection criteria,” ETC explained in a media release. “With our new rankings system, a ‘distance learning’ component is mandatory for a high ranking simply because there is a real possibility that at least some instruction will be done via the Internet. Schools that have systems and experience in distance learning, with a campus to support in-classroom teaching have the right formula for today. And factoring in that the U.S. is now in the midst of a deep recession, tuition is also a primary consideration.”

The new system ranks more than 1,200 colleges nationwide “by their ability to offer a quality education under any conceivable scenario: in-classroom, online, and a blend of each format.”

To get a Tier 1 ranking, a school must have a physical campus, robust software and systems for distance learning, faculty experienced in online teaching and “reasonable tuition and fees.” The school must be able to “to deliver full curriculum online and in-classroom

Wilkes issued a media release touting its ranking.

“When Wilkes made the necessary decision to transition to remote learning in March 2020, our faculty and staff responded in a collaborative way that allowed us to continue to deliver on our educational promise to students as seamlessly as possible,” President Greg Cant said in the release. “We are all eager for our students to return to campus this fall. But we also know that we have the skills to continue our curriculum in online or hybrid formats as the health situation dictates.”

King’s Spokesman John McAndrew sent a statement via email.

“King’s College has always strived to provide personalized attention, one of the four pillars of a Holy Cross education,” the statement read. “The COVID-19 pandemic necessitated a change to distance learning. Through survey responses by the faculty and students we’ve learned that King’s succeeded in transitioning the technology being used for recently established on-line graduate programs in education, health care administration, and the health sciences to be used for undergraduate education.”