POTSDAM -- Clarkson University's online master's degree program in business administration is consistently ranked in the top third of such programs in the country, according to a new list from U.S. News and World Report.

The program's dean attributes much of the success of the online program to the fact that many of the same faculty on campus are running the online courses.

Clarkson's online MBA course, ranked fifth overall, is listed in the "honor roll" of "Top Online Graduate Business Programs" at the web page http://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/mba/honor-roll-rankings.

"A program made the Top Online Business Degrees honor roll if it was ranked in the top one third of three out of the four indicators: admissions selectivity, faculty credentials and training, student engagement and accreditation, and student services and technology," it says on the page.

In the "Graduate Programs - Business" category, Clarkson ranked #2 for faculty credentials & training, #4 for student engagement & accreditation, #23 for admissions selectivity, and #24 for student services & technology, using U.S. News's criteria.

There are 14 such online programs on the Honor Roll.

Clarkson's high faculty ranking reflects the design of the program, according to the dean.

"The quality of our faculty is one of the big differences between Clarkson's online MBA and many other programs," said School of Business Dean Timothy F. Sugrue. "Our best full-time faculty are teaching our online courses. The quality of our professors differentiates us from the strictly online universities that don't have actual faculty active in scholarly research."

Online bachelor's degree programs as well as graduate online degree programs in business, engineering, nursing, education, and computer information technology were ranked by U.S. News.

The rankings were created in response to demand for education provided in a flexible manner, including offerings via the Internet.

"The opportunity to study online is vital to students who need an MBA, but cannot attend school full-time or part-time because of their travel schedules," said Sugrue. "By leveraging information technology with online programs, we enhance the effect of our faculty and provide an experience equal to being on campus in the classroom."

While U.S. News has applied some of its rankings standards used for traditional schools, many new measures have been developed and were used to evaluate online programs. In order to be considered for the rankings, online degree programs needed to have at least 80 percent of their course content available online.