Although Ohio University counts boosting national prominence as a priority, for the second year in a row OU has fallen in the U.S. News and World Report's annual Best Colleges issue.
The university's 2009 edition ranking of 116 out of the 130 colleges considered to be tier one in the national universities category is four spots lower than the 2008 spot and six below where the university stood in 2007.
To say OU dropped in the rankings isn't totally accurate, said Mike Williford, associate provost for institutional research and assessment.
Yes
in terms of the number we dropped Williford said. But the number of institutions they are ranking has increased.
Williford said that despite a four-position drop, OU remained in the 56th percentile, the same relative position that it held in previous years.
President Roderick McDavis is confident that following through with the Five Year Vision Ohio Implementation Plan will improve OU's position in the rankings.
As long as we are true to our plan and we're really going to focus our energy and resources on implementing the first year of the Vision Ohio strategic plan
we think that ultimately will pay off in higher rankings
McDavis said.
Because of the emphasis on the peer assessment portion of U.S. News, determining the rankings is subject to the opinions and biases of other universities, McDavis said.
There are no data submitted along with those rankings
it's simply a question of what do you think of these institutions
he said.
The information U.S. News collects is useful, McDavis said, but it doesn't capture the entire student experience.
They don't go to the primary consumers of education on a campus and ask students 'how do you feel about the education you've received at a particular university
' he said.
Williford said that the U.S. News rankings fail to address the differences in institutional mission and that ranking systems have a hard time capturing the quality of an institution's offerings.
G? In Ohio there are 13 public universities
all do something different
he said. It's that diversity of mission that enables students to have a choice.
U.S. News separates the more than 1,400 colleges that they rank into categories based on the school's mission, including national universities, liberal arts schools and baccalaureate colleges. They collect data in seven categories: peer assessment, retention, faculty resources, student selectivity, financial resources, graduation rate performance and alumni giving rate.
Richard Vedder, an economics professor at OU who published an alternative college ranking on Forbes.com, said that U.S. News is fulfilling a need with their rankings, but it could probably be done better.
I don't think it measures what students are getting out of college
Vedder said.
U.S. News' rankings are based mostly on factors of wealth rather than the development of the undergraduate, Vedder said. He said that its rankings contribute to an academic arms race where schools are forced to spend more money in order to maintain their rankings.
ab195305@ohiou.edu
