Fisk University has been named one of the top 10 historically Black college and universities in the U.S. News and World Report’s 2022 Best Colleges rankings.
The alma mater of civil rights icons including W.E.B. Du Bois, U.S. Rep. John Lewis and Diane Nash, Fisk is one of Nashville’s oldest institutions of higher learning.
Dedicated in 1866, then as the Fisk School, the university was also known as the Fisk Free Colored School.
This year it joins the ranks of Spelman College, Howard University, Morehouse College and Tuskegee University among the top 10 HBCUs.
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These historically Black colleges and universities were compared only with one another for these rankings. To be on the list, a school must be currently designated by the U.S. Department of Education as an HBCU.
To qualify for the U.S. News rankings, an HBCU also must be an undergraduate baccalaureate-granting institution that enrolls primarily first-year, first-time students and must be a school that is part of the 2022 Best Colleges rankings, according to U.S. News and World Report.
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Of 78 HBCUs ranked, Fisk University is the only Tennessee institution to break the top 20 list. Tennessee State University ranked at 35th and both LeMoyne-Owen College and Lane College ranked in the 59th-78th grouping.
The rankings are based on academic quality and indicators including graduate indebtedness, assessment by administrators at peer HBCUs, alumni giving, student excellent and faculty and financial resources.
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Meghan Mangrum covers education for the USA TODAY Network — Tennessee. Contact her at mmangrum@tennessean.com. Follow her on Twitter @memangrum.
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