TUCSON, AZ (September 30, 2025) -- The University of Arizona’s Eller College of Management has once again put Southern Arizona on the national stage. In U.S. News & World Report’s 2026 Best Colleges rankings, Eller’s Management Information Systems (MIS) undergraduate program is No. 2 overall and No. 1 among public universities, sustaining a decades-long run near the top of the field.
Eller’s new undergraduate business analytics major, which officially launched in Fall 2025, made an immediate splash, debuting at No. 28 nationally and No. 12 among publics. That’s a notable first-year showing for a program designed to meet fast-rising employer demand for data literacy across finance, logistics, health, and defense.
Beyond those headline programs, Eller notched strong placements across several disciplines. Entrepreneurship ranked No. 23 overall and No. 8 public, Accounting placed No. 37 overall and No. 17 public, and Economics came in at No. 44 overall and No. 15 public. As a college, Eller’s overall undergraduate business program ranked No. 32 nationally and No. 21 among publics—a solid indicator of breadth beneath the marquee specialties.
Why this matters for the business community: rankings are not just bragging rights—they’re a signal to employers, investors, and recruits that Southern Arizona’s talent pipeline is deepening in exactly the areas where the economy is growing. The region’s employers increasingly seek graduates who can translate data into decisions, build secure information systems, and navigate the economics of growth. Eller's MIS program has been a steady national leader—one of only a few to maintain top-five status since U.S. News began ranking MIS in 1989—while analytics provides a complementary on-ramp for students whose strengths are statistics, coding, and applied problem-solving.
The timing also aligns with the needs of Southern Arizona’s economy. From advanced manufacturing and aerospace/defense to healthcare and logistics, employers are modernizing operations and digitizing workflows. MIS graduates arrive with a grounding in systems analysis, data management, cybersecurity, and product implementation—skills that shorten the time from onboarding to impact. Analytics majors bring modeling, visualization, and experimentation capabilities to bear on everything from revenue forecasting to supply-chain planning. Pair those strengths with Eller’s recognized programs in entrepreneurship, accounting, and economics, and local companies gain a spectrum of business competencies under one roof.
For students, the cross-over is equally essential: an MIS capstone may partner with a local utility on data governance; an analytics practicum might help a regional hospital system optimize patient flow; an entrepreneurship team could pilot a go-to-market plan for a Tucson startup. The result is a two-way pipeline—businesses secure applied solutions and a preview of the next cohort of hires, while students graduate with experience that reads like a first job, not just a class project.
If you’re an employer, now is the time to plug in. In practical terms, that can mean posting internships and entry-level roles early, sponsoring projects that let students work on real datasets, or guest-lecturing to shape curricula around emerging tools and standards. The college’s career team can help scope engagements that fit a company’s capacity, whether you’re a five-person startup or a Fortune 500 division.
The bottom line: Eller’s latest rankings confirm what many Southern Arizona employers already see on the shop floor and in the back office—a steady stream of job-ready graduates who can move seamlessly between technology and business. With MIS at No. 2 overall / No. 1 public, analytics newly ranked in the top 30, and strong showings in entrepreneurship, accounting, and economics, Eller is positioning Tucson as a destination not only for students, but for companies that want to hire, grow, and stay here.
The region’s growth makes this workforce imperative. As Southern Arizona adds people and jobs, the pressure mounts to deliver infrastructure that is reliable, affordable, and future-ready. That won’t happen with engineering alone; it requires the connective tissue of information systems and analytics to plan, prioritize, fund, and operate assets over decades. Eller’s rankings signal that this talent is not just available, it’s being cultivated at scale right here at home. That’s what rankings look like when they turn into results.
Sources: Eller College announcements and rankings pages summarizing U.S. News & World Report 2026 undergraduate rankings.
PHOTO: Courtesy of Southern Arizona Chamber