A Fashion Trend

The highly regarded Business of Fashion (BoF) has once again named Jefferson in its influential Best Fashion Schools in the World rankings.

The international resource for fashion creatives, executives and entrepreneurs, which boasts more than four million followers across its social media platforms, recognized the University’s undergraduate fashion design and fashion merchandising and management programs, along with the graduate fashion design management and global fashion enterprise programs.

BoF honored 37 schools—and just 11 from the United States—in the undergraduate fashion design category. For undergraduate fashion business and management, it acknowledged 14 programs and only eight nationally. And with graduate fashion business and management (which combined the results of Jefferson’s fashion design management and global fashion enterprise programs), the University ranked among the top 10 in the world and top four in the United States.

Jefferson’s shared the distinction with other leading institutions from around the world, including the Fashion Institute of Technology, Parsons School of Design and London College of Fashion.

"We’re thrilled to again be included in the prestigious BoF rankings,” says Sheila Connelly, Jefferson’s fashion design program director. “Within the fashion industry, no one else compares to BoF and their comprehensive, meticulous approach to assessing worldwide fashion programs. To once again be named one of the top schools in the United States is an honor as well as a testament to our talented and dedicated fashion faculty. I’m most proud of the fact that Jefferson is specifically cited for our long-term value and the employability of our students. College is such an investment, making the right choice is critical to a student’s long-term career."

For all three categories, BoF cited Jefferson’s ability to develop market-driven fashion entrepreneurs equipped with the skills to solve problems in the competitive fashion environment. In particular, it mentioned a collaborative project with Verizon on wearable technology. The company developed the prototype and hosted students in its New Jersey headquarters to work with their internal teams.

Other recent fashion highlights include: five students winning YMA Fashion Scholarships; students presenting their collections at New York Fashion Week; students earning scholarships from the National Retail Federation; a pop-up shop raising over $2,500 for charity and partnering with PVH for another industry pop-up; and the annual Design X and Fashion Shows showcasing the talents of more than 110 student designers.

“The BoF ranking validates our innovative approach to teaching industry-driven concepts,” says Nioka Wyatt, director of the fashion merchandising and management program. “We cultivate an environment that incorporates a strong focus on practice, problem solving, industry engagement and analytics. The ranking is a significant milestone that allows us to have global representation in fashion.”

With the rankings, BoF used 30 different data points gathered from 66 institutions; surveys completed by 13,500 students and alumni; feedback from 115 leading HR and industry professionals; global fashion school faculty; and input from the BoF Education Council, a committee of 12 experts from fashion education and industry.

Aiming to empower prospective students to make an informed decision about their education, BoF based its assessment on three major quality indicators: global influence, learning experience and long-term value. (Read more about the methodology.)

Along with appearing on the BoF rankings for the fourth time, Fashionista recently named the University’s fashion programs No. 7 in the world and No. 3 in the United States. This marks the best ranking ever for Jefferson fashion by the influential website. In addition, CEOWORLD Magazine included Jefferson of its Best Fashion Schools in the World list, placing the University at No. 24 internationally and No. 6 in the United States.