One of the most visible sets of rankings for U.S. graduate schools shuffled many of UNC’s programs’ placements on the prestigious list.
Many members of the UNC faculty agreed that the U.S. News and World Report graduate rankings, released Tuesday, are important in attracting talented students and faculty, but some of them questioned the methods used to compile the list.
Sridhar Balasubramanian, associate dean of the MBA Program in the Kenan-Flagler Business School, said administrators are still not satisfied with the program’s ranking of 19th in the nation.
“It is good to be ranked in the top 20, but we are not happy with where we are,” he said. “We have to continue to push forward.”
The sought-after rankings are based on expert peer assessments and statistical indicators such as test scores, GPA, acceptance rates and employment rates for graduates, according to the U.S. News and World report website.
But while rankings are important, Michael Hobbs, director of communications for the School of Education, said certain statistics might skew the rankings as well, so it is important for prospective students to conduct deeper research about schools or programs of interest.
The School of Education, for example, had a decline in external funding due to two large funded projects being completed this year, he said.
External funding is one of the factors considered in the rankings, so it might have contributed to the school’s drop in ranking from 29 in 2011 to 34 this year, even though the school’s peer evaluations remained consistent.
Some critics of the rankings argue that the methodology that determines them is faulty because of a lack of feedback from students, said Jack Richman, dean of the School of Social Work. The school’s master’s program ranking jumped from 8 in 2008 to 5 this year.
