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Education Dive
U.S. News removes UC Berkeley, 4 other schools from ranking
Natalie Schwartz
July 29, 2019
Dive Brief:
U.S. News & World Report unranked the University of California,
Berkeley and four other schools in its 2019 edition of its popular Best
Colleges list after they acknowledged to the publication they provided
incorrect information.
It moved UC Berkeley into the unranked category after the school
notified U.S. News that it misreported data about its alumni donations,
which account for 5% of its ranking.
The four other schools to lose their spots due to providing incorrect
data are Mars Hill University, Johnson & Wales University, Scripps
College and the University of North Carolina at Pembroke.
Dive Insight:
All five schools notified U.S. News that they had supplied the
publication with incorrect information to calculate their 2019 Best
Colleges rankings. For the next three years, the publication will
require top leaders at UC Berkeley and Johnson & Wales to write
letters certifying the information they provide is correct, according
to letters sent to the schools and posted on its website.
Other schools have come under fire for submitting false data. In May,
U.S. News announced that the University of Oklahoma had inflated its
alumni giving rate for the past 20 years.
And last year, Temple University announced that its business school
reported incorrect information in the hopes of boosting its ranking.
The college ousted the school's dean over the scandal and agreed to pay
$5.5 million to settle a class-action lawsuit with students.
Even so, U.S. News said in the announcement that "misreporting is
rare." Although the publication "relies on schools to accurately report
their data," it compares submitted information to federal government
data and flags "year-over-year discrepancies," it added.
Many colleges vie for top spots on the annual rankings. However, some
higher education leaders contend they don't accurately capture the
quality of an institution. Still, research shows the list has
considerable influence over where students want to go to college.
The publication has changed the ranking in response to mounting
criticism. For instance, the 2019 rankings were the first to
factor in social mobility for low-income students and to drop
acceptance rate information.
Some, however, say the publication didn't go far enough. Last year, six
Senate Democrats suggested it continue to alter its methodology.
"We join others in questioning whether the changes represent a true
embrace of social mobility, as your ranking system still fails to
consider the extent to which colleges enroll historically
underrepresented students," they wrote in a letter.
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