The University College of Education’s graduate program received high rankings for the fifth consecutive year in a recent U.S. News and World Report survey, the University announced last week.
The survey ranked researchers in the program as the nation’s most productive, with federal grant-supported research activity generating an average of $1.5 million per faculty member.
The program is also ranked among the nation’s top five public graduate institutions, and the Special Education program is ranked third, according to the release.
“The rankings reflect the expertise and impact of the college’s faculty as they help Oregon schools and communities meet the needs of children and families,” College of Education Dean Martin Kaufman said, adding that faculty members helped Oregon become one of the first five states to receive Reading First grants totaling about $50 million.
The Lundquist College of Business’s MBA program ranked eighth among all West Coast business schools and was the only program in Oregon ranked in the survey, according to the release. It ranked 58th overall, compared to its No. 70 ranking last year.
Business school Dean Philip Romero credits the ranking to new high-quality faculty members, a higher-quality undergraduate class and “the new facility that’s the envy of the industry.”
“We have definitely improved our performance substantially,” he said.
The news magazine’s 2005 edition of “America’s Best Graduate Schools” uses data including expert opinions from deans, program directors and senior faculty, along with
statistical data measuring the quality of students and faculty in each school to produce a ranking, according to its Web site at http://www.usnews.com.
While the School of Law ranked among the top 50 schools nationwide in academic reputation, and the Environmental Law Program ranked No. 14, law school representatives indicated that they place little value on these types of surveys.
“Deans of all (American Bar Association) accredited law schools tend to be wary of magazine rankings, because so many important aspects of legal education aren’t included,” School of Law Dean Laird Kirkpatrick said in a statement on the law school’s Web site. “But when it comes to academic reputation, the factor most important to our students, we can’t help but be pleased to see that we rank in the top fifty in peer assessment and assessment by lawyers and judges, as we have for years.”
According to a report commissioned by the Association of American Law Schools at http://www.aals.org/validity.html, the surveying methods leave room for potential bias in the subjective portions of the survey, such as school reputation, and leave out factors such as faculty quality.
Kaufman said there is no way around subjectivity when it comes to such evaluations as academic reputation, but he added that more important portions of the survey are based on factual data.
“The component that is the largest rated component is connected with research funding,” he said. “There’s nothing subjective about that.”
Romero said that he takes these kinds of rankings “with a grain of salt,” but he is still pleased the school is being recognized nationally.
Second year MBA student Dennis Schrag said it is difficult to gauge a school’s rankings because students have different reasons for attending certain schools.
“There’s just too many X factors to put an exact number on it,” he said, adding that he did not take previous rankings into account when he chose to attend the school.
Special Education graduate student Shanna Millen said the College of Education is highly deserving of its rankings because it is one of the leading schools in the nation.
“The U of O’s education program is well-known and extremely valued by institutions all over the country,” she said, adding that its previous rankings reinforced her decision to enter the program.