Press Release

August 7, 2006
Contact: Kaylyn Kendall Dines
(973) 972-3000
dineskd@umdnj.edu

UMDNJ Earns Recognition for Ethnically Diverse Graduating Class

NEWARK — The University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey received several noteworthy rankings in Diverse Issues in Higher Education, which recently published its annual list of top colleges and universities to award professional degrees to minorities.

Diverse Issues in Higher Education, formerly known as Black Issues in Higher Education, announced the nation’s top 100 colleges and universities that produced the largest number of minority graduates during the academic year ending 2005. Among non-historically black colleges and universities, UMDNJ retained its number one ranking in the medicine category as the largest producer of minority physicians. In addition, UMDNJ also ranked highly in the Health Sciences and Dentistry categories.

“This recognition reflects our commitment to diversity and the rich learning environment that is created by having students from a variety of racial and ethnic backgrounds in all of our schools,” said Dr. Denise V. Rodgers, executive vice president for Academic and Clinical Affairs at UMDNJ. “These designations were made possible by the dedication of UMDNJ’s faculty and their unwavering focus on excellence in education.”

Here are other key areas. UMDNJ was the:

Medicine

· Number one producer of Asian Americans who earned medical degrees as their first professional degrees
· Third ranking producer of African-American who earned medical degrees (following Howard University in Wash., D.C., & Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tenn.)
· Sixth ranking institution to graduate Latinos who earned medical degrees as their first professional degree

Health Science

· Sixth ranking institution to produce minority recipients of doctoral degrees in Health Sciences
· Sixth ranking producer of African-American and Asian-American graduates who earned doctoral degrees in Health Sciences
· Ninth producer of Latinos who earned doctoral degree s in Health Sciences (tied with Stony Brook University, University of Illinois at Chicago and Central Michigan)

Dentistry

· Seventh producer of African-Americans graduates to earn their first professional degree in dentistry (tied with Temple University, Virginia Commonwealth, Texas A&M University System Health Sciences Center)
· Tenth producer of Hispanic graduates to earn their first professional degrees in dentistry

Higher education institutions nationwide supplied statistics from academic year 2005 to the U.S. Department of Education and a researcher at Indiana University - Perdue University of Indianapolis used the data to compile this national list. The list includes rankings for top master, doctoral, and first professional degrees awarded to African-American, Latino, Asian American and American-Indian students.

UMDNJ is the nation’s largest free-standing public health sciences university with more than 5,500 students attending the state's three medical schools, its only dental school, a graduate school of biomedical sciences, a school of health related professions, a school of nursing and a school of public health on five campuses. Annually, there are more than two million patient visits at UMDNJ facilities and faculty practices at campuses in Newark, New Brunswick/Piscataway, Scotch Plains, Camden and Stratford. UMDNJ operates University Hospital, a Level I Trauma Center in Newark, and University Behavioral HealthCare, a statewide mental health and addiction services network.