By Larry Gordon. The Obama administration on Dec. 19 is releasing the rough outlines of a much-anticipated college ratings system that may grade schools on such factors as graduation rates, loan repayments and post-graduation income. Many details remain to be decided over the next few months, with some wary colleges and universities sure to protest any measurements that might hurt their reputations. More...
By Michael Stratford. The U.S. Department of Education published just a handful of pages of information, much of which underscores what officials have been saying publicly for months. There are, however, some new details about how the administration plans to approach the ratings. And the department released an expanded version on Friday. Read more...
By Mark S. Schneider. The Education Department’s “framework” for its college-ratings plan is surprisingly tentative, filled with verbs like “exploring” and “considering.” It can be seen as a smart move: Kick the ratings can down the road, telegraph what might be coming, get more stakeholder involvement, and so on. But it can also be seen as an OMG moment: After so much effort, so many meetings, and so much chatter, there remain far too many questions unanswered and far too many ratings criteria ill-defined. More...
By F. King Alexander. The plan just released for rating colleges and universities is a concept that higher education should welcome as a first step toward developing more-comprehensive ways to measure colleges’ value. The U.S. Department of Education’s Postsecondary Institution Ratings System (PIRS), a continuation of the existing College Scorecard, will be complex for many reasons, including the diversity of our higher-education institutions and our well-documented limitations on data. But we should start by considering ways to make PIRS more effective, rather than immediately devaluing it and viewing it with suspicion and disapproval. More...
By Patricia McGuire. In the time-honored tradition of students’ slipping papers under professors’ doors before dashing home at winter break, the U.S. Department of Education released its first draft of the proposed college-ratings framework on the last day of the fall semester. Like many a late paper, the proposed ratings framework offers interesting insights into the student’s struggle to learn without much illumination of the actual problem the paper purports to solve. More...
By Andy Thomason. For the past 16 months, the Obama administration’s plan to rate colleges has been one of the most talked-about issues in higher education. On Friday morning the Education Department’s draft plan arrived with a whimper, as news outlets and observers quickly remarked that the so-called framework was less a rough draft than a bare-bones outline of what an eventual system might feature. More...
Rankings published today by Research Fortnight magazine, analysing data from the 2014 Research Excellence Framework (REF), show the top universities in the country for research excellence. Check out which institutions made the top 10 and where they were in 2008. Read more...
Results from the Research Excellence Framework (REF) setting out standards of research at UK universities, shows that Oxford is still the best institution for research. Use our searchable league table to find out where your university ranks. Read more...
By Rebecca Warden and Ard Jongsma. International league tables should take account of civic engagement when they are ranking universities, according to vice-chancellors, academics and students gathered on 4 December at the closing ceremony of the Talloires Network Leaders Conference near Cape Town, South Africa. This was one of six points in a Call to Action, a closing statement for the 264 delegates to take back to their institutions in 41 countries. Read more...
By . Alternative ranking of REF results maps university performance against the proportion of eligible staff submitted. Queen’s University Belfast and Brunel and Loughborough universities are three of the biggest winners when their quality scores in the research excellence framework are weighted for research intensity. More...
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