Ramsey says UofL's next goal is to have academics catch up with football, basketball teams

The University of Louisville’s football team (Sugar Bowl champs) and basketball team (ranked No. 1 in the nation) have shown they can hang with their future competitors in the Atlantic Coast Conference. But what about the university, academically?

UofL would be last among ACC teams in U.S. News and World Report rankings — 160th with N.C. State as the only other school over 100. And the four-year graduation rate at UofL would be last as well: 22 percent.

“We’re not there yet, but we can see the other schools’ taillights and we are moving up,” said UofL President James Ramsey in a studio interview Tuesday (at 1:35 of the video).

As for affordability, UofL students pay $9,433 a year in tuition. Only the University of Kentucky charges more among Kentucky public universities.

But Ramsey said UofL officials haven’t made a decision about how much to hold down tuition increases for 2013-2014. UK has pledged not to raise tuition more than 3 percent.

“We do operate in a market place and students do have choices, and we are the two research universities. We know the schools we are competing with for students and UK is one of those,” he said (at 7:15).

Ramsey said the university has done well to keep the total cost for students low, especially by offering financial aid.

“About half of our graduates graduate with some form of debt and the average would be around $20,000, which would be about the same amount as you would probably graduate with your car” (at 5:30).