Peer Institutions

Peer List for WWU

On December 10, 2004, the Board of Trustees of Western Washington University, upon recommendation of the President, approved the following list of 25 peer institutions for Western, with the understanding that the listing may be reviewed and altered over time to adequately serve Western’s analytic needs of resource management, performance measurement and trend analysis. 

Criteria Used to Identify Western’s Existing Peer Group

The criteria used to develop Western’s initial listing of “peer” institutions include:

• Master’s I Carnegie Classification
• Public funding
• National reputation for academic excellence (e.g., USN&WR, Regional Tier 1 Public Institutions).
• Faculty excellence
• Institutional mission similar to Western
• Enrollment between 5,000 and 20,000
• Institutional diversity

Research and Analysis

The Budget Office compares Western's tuition and fees to peer institutions regularly.  Results of these analyses can be found below.

• Peer Group Tuition and Fee Cost Comparison
• Per Student Funding: A Comparison of WWU and Washington Institutions of Higher Education 2013-14 through 2014-15
• 2013-14 WA State Public Institutions of Higher Education Tuition and Mandatory Fees