Georgia Southern University has ranked in the top providers nationally for degrees conferred to diverse students among higher education institutions.

For several years, Diverse Issues In Higher Education has produced the Top 100 Degree Producers rankings of the institutions that confer the most degrees to diverse students. The data was reported at the end of 2022 for the previous year of 2020-2021.

Georgia Southern ranked highly in the following categories:

#2 for international (temporary resident) students receiving doctoral degrees in public health
#3 for African American and total minority students receiving doctoral degrees in public health
#5 for African American students receiving bachelor’s degrees in the physical sciences
#6 for African American students receiving bachelor’s degrees in communications disorder sciences
#6 for African American students receiving bachelor’s degrees in parks and recreation

“We are proud to be ranked in the top 20 in a variety of disciplines and categories,” said Dominique A. Quarles, Ph.D., associate vice president for inclusive excellence and chief diversity officer. "Along with our designations as a First-gen Forward Institution and Military Friendly School, this highlights the University’s success in providing education to students in our diverse state and region, and it reaffirms the importance of inclusion as a value at Georgia Southern.”

The number of combined bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees awarded increased by over 55,000 degrees from 2019-2021 to 2021-2022 for diverse students nationwide.

Underrepresented students of color received 35% of the combined degrees. The data comes from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data system survey known as IPEDS, collected by the U.S. Department of Education.