We are thrilled to announce that, through the overwhelming generosity of our alumni and friends, the College of Education has reached our campaign goal for the With Illinois campaign. The fundraising that raised $25 million within the College of Education has focused on making education more affordable for our students. The majority of these funds will create new scholarship and fellowship opportunities—lightening the financial load for students who are working to become the next generation of educational leaders and scholars.
While we are proud to reach this critically important milestone, our fundraising efforts will not stop. We remain resolute in our commitment to secure private resources from now to the conclusion of the campaign timeline in 2022. The Office of Advancement will continue to work with our alumni and donors to make Illinois accessible to all who are looking to make Illinois their alma mater.
Education at Illinois continues to top the rankings—an annual milestone achievement! Our online master's degree programs were named #3 overall in the nation and deemed the #1 online programs for Veterans in U.S. News and World Report's 2021 rankings. We have long been a pioneer in the area of distance learning. Our first online programs were available to students in the late 1990s and we have been innovating in this space ever since. Read more from our new Director of Online Programs, Dr. Sangeetha Gopalakrishnan, about what is yet to come for online programming offered by the College of Education.