The NEW NRC DATA BASED DATA BASED ASSESSMENT OF RESEARCH ASSESSMENT OF RESEARCH
DOCTORATE PROGRAMSDOCTORATE PROGRAMS
Not your father’s survey, but the mother of all surveys
TAKE HOME POINTS
• There is no ONE right way to do rankings.
• UA did fine! Solidly in step with our ABOR peers. Many programs near top.
• Much more than rankings. Most valuable as a benchmarking tool for improvement and accountability
2
Many ways to develop rankings—
NRC did it in FIVE ways.
TWO OVERALL ‘QUALITY’ rankings, reported as ranges, with 90% confidence intervals
1. R = regression-based. Small # of raters, hence some are quirky.
2. S = survey-based weights derived from an idealized question about relative importance of variables
Not all variables are used in these overall rankings
Samples in your packet
Plus 3 dimensions (the 20 variables fall into these categories):
3.Research Activity
4.Student Support and Outcomes Sample in your packet
5.Diversity of the Academic Environment
9
NRC says:
“The production of rankings from measures of quantitative data turned out to be more complicated and to have greater uncertainty than originally thought. As a
consequence, the illustrative rankings are neither endorsed nor recommended by the National Research Council (NRC) as an authoritative conclusion about the relative quality of doctoral programs. . .
“The reader who seeks a single, authoritative declaration of the ‘best programs’ in given fields will not find it in this report.”
What's important in:
Variable S R Variable S R Variable S R Variable S R Variable S R Variable S RPub/fac 1 2 %fac w/
grants1 Pub/fac 1 Pub/fac 1.5 4 Pub/fac 1 Pub/fac 1 5
%fac w/ grants
2 Pub/fac 2 3 %fac w/ grants
2 %fac w/ grants
1.5 Cite/pub 2 4 % students in acad positions
2
% students in acad positions
3 Cite/pub 3 2 Cite/pub 3 5 Cite/pub 3 3 %fac w/ grants
3 Awards/ fac
3 2
Cite/pub 4 % students in acad positions
4 Awards/ fac
4 3 Awards/ fac
4 2 % students in acad positions
4 % interdisp faculty
4 4
% interdisp faculty
5 GRE 5 4 % students in acad positions
5 % students in acad positions
5 Awards/ fac
5 1 % 1st yr w/ full support
5
GRE 5 Awards/fac
5 GRE 2 GRE 5 GRE 2 GRE 1
# PhDs 1 # PhDs 1 # PhDs 1 # PhDs 1 # PhDs 3 # PhDs 3Health insurance
3 # student activities
4 # student activities
5
# student activities
4
Social and Behavioral
Sciences
HumanitiesAgricultural Science
Biological & Health Sciences
Engineering Physical & Math Sciences
DEMO on NRC site• I want to study LINGUISTICS (52 programs)
• In the EAST or WEST (31 programs)
• I want good probability of FINISHING (11)
• I need financial support (9)
• I’d like to study with diverse faculty (5)
• I care about faculty research, citations
• I should go to ARIZONA!