UArizona Peers

Colleges and universities are historical institutions [with varied missions and visions]. – Thelin, 2019

Modern-day universities offer students various value propositions. Some universities are small, some are large. Some consider their raison-d’être to be regionally-serving while others target a national or global audience. Many prioritize research and knowledge production. Funding sources can be public or private. Several universities improve access and equity for historically under-represented populations. To further complicate things, many offer a mixture of missions. As a result, every university has a unique identity, which can make evaluation difficult, but not impossible.

Despite differences, universities with similar characteristics benefit greatly when they share best practices through data exchange and evaluation. Collaborating and benchmarking with multiple peers – particularly those with varied missions but similar characteristics -- allows for comparisons while remaining cognizant of underlying differences.

The University of Arizona considers its peer set in the following contexts:

  • Association of American Universities: The University of Arizona is a member of the prestigious AAU -- 71 universities on the “leading edge of innovation, scholarship, and solutions that contribute to scientific progress, economic development, security, and well-being.” The matrix below contains the publicly funded subset of the University of Arizona's AAU peers. 
  • Big 12 NCAA: The University of Arizona is a member of the Big 12 NCAA athletic conference. All current Big 12 schools are included in the matrix. 

Additionally, the matrix documents the following attributes of these AAU and Big 12 peer institutions: 

  • Medical School: The University of Arizona is the only MD degree granting institution in the state of Arizona. Notation is made if a peer is a MD degree granting institution. 
  • Land-Grant Institutions: The University of Arizona is an original Land-Grant institution. The original mission of the land-grant institution was to, “. . . expand access and improve student success to deliver the innovative workforce of tomorrow; advance and promote research and discovery to improve society, foster economic growth, and address global challenges; and, build healthy, prosperous, equitable, and vibrant communities locally and globally.” If a peer is a land grant institution, notation is made. 
  • Hispanic Serving Institutions: Using the HEA federal definition, The University of Arizona is a nonprofit, degree-granting institution with full-time equivalent (FTE) undergraduate Hispanic student enrollment > 25%. The Hispanic Serving status of peer institutions is noted in the matrix below. 

It should be noted that this list and categorization schema is not exhaustive, and the identification of peer sets should always be thought of in the context of the research at hand.

 

Institution City State AAU Big 12 Med School Land-Grant Hispanic Serving HACU
University of Arizona Tucson AZ

Arizona State University Tempe AZ

 

 

Baylor University Waco TX

 

 

 

Brigham Young University Provo UT

 

 

 

 

Georgia Institute of Technology Atlanta GA

 

 

 

 

Indiana University Bloomington IN

 

 

 

Iowa State University Ames IA

 

 

 

Kansas State University Manhattan KS

 

 

 

Michigan State University East Lansing MI

 

 

Ohio State University Columbus OH

 

 

Oklahoma State University Stillwater OK

 

 

 

Pennsylvania State University University Park PA

 

 

Purdue University Lafayette IN

 

 

 

Rutgers University New Brunswick NJ

 

 

Stony Brook University (SUNY) Stony Brook NY

 

 

 

Texas A&M University College Station TX

 

 

Texas Christian University Fort Worth TX

 

 

 

Texas Tech University Lubbock TX

 

 

University at Buffalo (SUNY) Buffalo NY

 

 

 

University of California, Berkeley Berkeley CA

 

 

 

University of California, Davis Davis CA

 

University of California, Irvine Irvine CA

 

University of California, Los Angeles Los Angeles CA

 

 

University of California, Riverside Riverside CA

 

University of California, San Diego San Diego CA

 

 

University of California, Santa Barbara Santa Barbara CA

 

 

University of California, Santa Cruz Santa Cruz CA

 

 

University of Central Florida Orlanda FL

 

 

University of Cincinnati Cincinnati OH

 

 

 

University of Colorado, Boulder Boulder CO

 

 

 

University of Florida Gainesville FL

 

 

University of Houston Houston TX

 

 

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Urbana IL

 

 

University of Iowa Iowa City IA

 

 

 

University of Kansas Lawrence KS

 

 

University of Maryland, College Park College Park MD

 

 

University of Michigan Ann Arbor MI

 

 

 

University of Minnesota, Twin Cities Minneapolis MN

 

 

University of Missouri Columbia MO

 

 

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Chapel Hill NC

 

 

 

University of Oregon Eugene OR

 

 

 

 

University of Pittsburgh Pittsburgh PA

 

 

 

University of South Florida Tampa FL

 

 

University of Texas at Austin Austin TX

 

 

University of Utah Salt Lake City UT

 

 

University of Virginia Charlottesville VA

 

 

 

University of Washington Seattle WA

 

 

 

University of Wisconsin-Madison Madison WI

 

 

West Virginia University Morgantown WV