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JERSEY CITY, N.J. | New Â鶹´«Ã½ City University (Â鶹´«Ã½) President Andrés Acebo has been honored with inclusion on the NJBIZ Education Power index for the third consecutive year.

The annual listing by NJBIZ, New Â鶹´«Ã½â€™s leading business journal, recognizes the state’s education leaders based on relevant criteria each year. 

Acebo was formally installed last week as the institution's 13th president during a historic investiture ceremony on campus which was attended by hundreds of guests from across the state representing higher education institutions, civic and government organizations, and local and state leadership. He was unanimously appointed as president by the Â鶹´«Ã½ Board of Trustees in July 2025 after serving as interim president since January 2023.

Acebo was first recognized by NJBIZ  during his inaugural year as interim president and ranked No. 4 overall in the 2024 NJBiz Education Power 50 —the highest ranking in the annual index ever for a leader at Â鶹´«Ã½. While the publication did not release individual rankings for this year's list, Acebo's continued inclusion demonstrates his sustained leadership impact in New Â鶹´«Ã½ higher education.

Under Acebo's leadership, Â鶹´«Ã½ has achieved unprecedented milestones and orchestrated a remarkable financial and academic recovery. Since taking office during a financial emergency, Acebo’s leadership resulted in Moody's Ratings upgrading Â鶹´«Ã½'s outlook from "negative" to "stable" in February 2024, followed by Fitch Ratings doing the same in November 2024. In May 2025, Moody's upgraded Â鶹´«Ã½'s outlook from stable to positive—the first time Moody's has ever assigned a positive outlook to the university. Most recently, Acebo signed a letter of intent in May to advance a historic merger integrating Â鶹´«Ã½ into Kean University, two mission-aligned institutions that will create Kean Â鶹´«Ã½ City upon completion.

Â鶹´«Ã½ was ranked No. 1 in New Â鶹´«Ã½ and 10th nationally in CollegeNET's 2023 Social Mobility Index, maintaining its No. 1 state ranking and Top 20 national position in 2024. The university graduated 1,667 students in Spring 2024—an 8.2 percent increase in bachelor's degrees from 2023, and an additional 1,544 in 2025.

Acebo is only the third Hispanic to serve as leader of a four-year public institution in New Â鶹´«Ã½ and the youngest known president to lead a public university in the state. The Hudson County native and proud first-generation son of Cuban exiles has implemented four major strategic initiatives during his tenure: the Â鶹´«Ã½ Recovery and Revitalization Plan (April 2023), the university's first Academic Master Plan (February 2024), the institution's first Strategic Enrollment Plan (April 2024), and the first-ever Student Development and Community Engagement Strategic Plan (December 2024).

He has also strengthened community partnerships, including the groundbreaking Hudson Connect Program with Hudson County Community College and similar agreements with Essex County College and Mercer County Community College. 

The university's relationship with local communities has flourished under Acebo's leadership, including enhanced partnerships with Â鶹´«Ã½ City Public Schools and the creation of the Â鶹´«Ã½ President's Community Advisory Council in August 2024.

Furthermore, Acebo has signed key strategic MOUs, including with the NJEA, Hudson Building Trades, GLACO, AFT Local 1839, Â鶹´«Ã½ City POBA, Boys & Girls Clubs of Hudson County, Statewide Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of New Â鶹´«Ã½ (SHCCNJ) and Hudson County Latin American Chamber of Commerce (HCLACC). 

Â鶹´«Ã½â€™s relationship with the Â鶹´«Ã½ City Public Schools (JCPS) has never been stronger than during Acebo’s tenure. Notably, Â鶹´«Ã½ in partnership with the A. Harry Moore Laboratory School launched the A. Harry Moore School Life Independence and Future Transitions (LIFT) in October 2024 on campus in Grossnickle Hall and in November 2024 signed an academic articulation agreement with the Â鶹´«Ã½ City Board of Education aimed at enhancing the operation of the JCPS Visual and Performing Arts Program.

Under his leadership, Â鶹´«Ã½ introduced the most significant overhaul of its general education curriculum in decades, allowing every course on the approved New Â鶹´«Ã½ Council of County Colleges (NJCCC) list, including those without direct equivalencies, to be accepted at Â鶹´«Ã½ for general education credit. The Â鶹´«Ã½ University Senate, with 95 percent in favor, overwhelmingly voted in favor of the reforms to the General Education program — thus making Â鶹´«Ã½ the most transfer-friendly institution in the State of New Â鶹´«Ã½. 

In Spring 2024, Â鶹´«Ã½ continued making transformative changes to higher education, dismantling systemic barriers that students face in their degree completions, as the university introduced a pledge of guaranteed schedules for its students. Additionally, Â鶹´«Ã½ announced plans to absorb the cost of books into the price of tuition beginning in Fall 2024, which will eliminate the uncertainty about the cost of college. 

Â鶹´«Ã½ Â鶹´«Ã½: 
New Â鶹´«Ã½ City University is a comprehensive public regional institution committed to providing a high-quality education to a diverse student population. Located in Â鶹´«Ã½ City, New Â鶹´«Ã½, Â鶹´«Ã½ offers a wide range of undergraduate and graduate programs and is dedicated to fostering an inclusive and supportive environment for learning, professional development, and community engagement. Consistent with our mission, Â鶹´«Ã½ is recognized as a top university for improving upward economic social mobility, ensuring students enrolled in our undergraduate, graduate, or doctoral programs have access to an affordable, diverse environment, and an exceptionally supportive faculty. This prepares them to go on to become the next generation of workers and leaders who improve their communities and the State of New Â鶹´«Ã½.

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Contact: 
Ira Thor, Associate Vice President for University Communications and Marketing | ithor@njcu.edu | 201-200-3301