Awards and Rankings
September 23, 2025
The 2026 edition of U.S. News & World Report’s Best College rankings place the University of Portland on a familiar perch: The #1 private school among peer institutions in the Western United States.
This announcement from U.S. News follows closely on the heels of additional accolades. Forbes ranked UP as the #1 private university in the Pacific Northwest, while Money’s “Best Colleges in America” favored UP with a stellar 4.5-star rating for high quality education, affordability, and student outcomes. Earlier this year, when The Princeton Review included the University on its list of the nation’s Best 391 Colleges, it touted UP’s quality of professors as “phenomenal.”
U.S. News also recognized faculty excellence on The Bluff when it ranked UP #1 among 118 schools in the ‘Regional Universities – West’ classification for “Best Undergraduate Teaching.” Overall, UP ranked second in the region among all public and private institutions—marking the seventh consecutive year Oregon’s Catholic university has earned a top three spot in U.S. News’ Best in the West rankings.
“We are thrilled that U.S. News has once again recognized UP’s excellence in teaching and learning, faith and formation, and service and leadership,” said President Robert D. Kelly, PhD. “While rankings never tell the full story, we nevertheless hope that our historic performance will prompt prospective students and families to learn more about our best-in-state graduation rate, remarkable outcomes, our beautiful campus, and our welcoming Catholic, Holy Cross mission.”
Each year, U.S. News & World Report evaluates nearly 1,700 national colleges and universities, using up to 17 measures of academic quality and graduate success. U.S. News’ 2026 University of Portland rankings overview measures overall value, academics, campus life, graduation rates, and post-graduate earnings.
In the Regional Universities—West classification, U.S. News ranked UP the #6 ‘Best Value School.’ UP’s #1 regional ranking for ‘Best Undergraduate Teaching’ came from a poll of top academics who nominated schools “that emphasize providing high quality instruction to undergrads,” according to U.S. News rankings methodology.
"Our talented faculty stand out for their commitment to the craft of teaching,” said Provost David Mengel, PhD. "From our transformative Core Curriculum to our new cross-campus Ethical AI Initiative, our faculty provide innovative curriculum and a holistic education that prepare UP students to thrive in a rapidly changing world—as engineers, business leaders, nurses, educators, health professionals, and as leaders in the careers of the future.”
In the fall 2025 semester, UP enrolled nearly 800 new students from across the nation and around the globe as part of a total enrollment of more than 3,100 undergraduate and graduate students.
Links to view University of Portland 2025-26 national rankings:
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