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.