Graduate Program Quality
The Center for Measuring University Performance has begun a pilot project to assess the feasibility of identifying high quality graduate programs among America's top research universities. Building on the previous work of The Center for Measuring University Performance in assessing the performance of universities, this new project looks at a range of characteristics that define high performing departments. To develop and test a methodology that relies on nationally available data and avoids reputation-based criteria, The Center for Measuring University Performance will initially evaluate one department from each of the sciences, engineering, the social sciences, and the humanities for each of about 20 to 30 top Ph.D. producing institutions. Because we believe that the primary driver of quality in research universities comes from research productive faculty, the pilot will focus on faculty. Among the indicators, we will initially include the number of tenure track faculty, grant activity of faculty, publications in significant peer reviewed journals, and scholarly book publications where appropriate to the discipline. In addition, we will collect information on the Ph.D. productivity of the departments. This project is currently in development, and as the methodology proves effective, The Center for Measuring University Performance will publish updates on the website. We envision a report similar to that we now produce for universities, but for specific academic departments.
This effort follows from the recognition that research university quality comes from the aggregate quality of its departments, and while there is utility in having reliable data on research universities, many institutions would benefit greatly from the availability of similar open, public, and reliable data on faculty research productivity in departments. As is the case with The Top American Research Universities, The Center for Measuring University Performance will provide this departmental quality study's results without charge to the academic community and the public.