Hot on the heels of its fifteen-spot jump in the U.S. News & World Report rankings of major American universities, Northeastern received more kudos this fall. A variety of opinion leaders and organizations deemed the university a respected Massachusetts institution, described it as a history maker and an education innovator, and praised its attractive campus.

In a survey of leading public- and private-sector executives, Northeastern ranked eighth in a field of 144 Bay State businesses, universities, and hospitals according to a number of criteria designed to measure reputation. The survey was conducted by Opinion Dynamics Corp. for the Boston-based reputation management and public relations firm Morrissey & Co.

Northeastern finished ahead of such competitors as Boston University (ranked tenth), Tufts University (twelfth), and the University of Massachusetts-Boston (eighteenth).

Harvard University topped the list, followed in order by Boston College, Fidelity Investments, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Massachusetts General Hospital.

Ed Cafasso, senior vice president at Morrissey, attributes Northeastern’s strong showing—which he calls “a real eye opener”—to the strength of the co-op program, the high level of representation of Northeastern graduates among the state’s corporate and business leaders, and the success of the university’s branding and marketing initiative.

“We’ve always been well respected in this town,” says President Freeland, “but it’s nice to have it confirmed by such an authoritative source.”

The Boston History Collaborative doubly saluted Northeastern for its pioneering efforts in cooperative and practice-oriented education. The organization gave the university one of its four History Maker awards, which this year also went to EMC Corp., Massachusetts General Hospital, and the Friends of the Public Garden. The award fetes institutions that have made major contributions to Boston’s history of innovation.

The collaborative also cited Northeastern’s expertise in practice-oriented education in a recently published book, Innovation Odyssey Boston: Four Hundred Years of Innovation Shaping the Nation and the World.

Finally, the Massachusetts Horticultural Society gave the university a gold medal for transforming a once dense urban campus into what Faith Tiberio, chair of the society’s honorary medals committee, calls “an inviting and extraordinary pedestrian landscape.”

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