Polytes 15!What's wrong with this famous American school?

Text ｜ Guo Yingjian (Professor of Renmin University of China)

On September 12, the "American News and World Report" released the ranking of American universities from 2022-2023 (hereinafter referred to as the US News ranking), and Columbia University (hereinafter referred to as Columbia University) as the old -fashioned Ivy League school. The 18th place that has never been before. This result shocked the whole United States.

On the US News rankings, Columbia University usually lives in the top of the top. The ranking of 15 foil this time is not only surprising, but it is indeed a cause.

The professor of our school broke the news that Gauda was suspected of data fraud

On September 20 last year, the University of Grand University announced on its website that the school was promoted to the highest position in the history of the US News ranking and tied with Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

In this similar report, the dean of the college James Valentini said that this is an recognition of the education of Copper undergraduate and the result of many years of hard work and alumni. "The core of our philosophy is people -oriented. I believe that it is exactly the practice of this concept that our students can thrive."

Jessica Marinasio, the director of the school responsible for undergraduate admissions, said that the ranking is only one of the many factors that candidates choose to consider when they choose to go to college. I am proud of this. "

It's a pity that the good times don't last long. In February of this year, Michael Sadis, a professor at the Department of Mathematics of Gohn, posted a long article on his website on his website. By March, he also updated the relevant data.

In this 21 -page article, the professor specializing in the algebraic geometry passed statistical analysis and data who submitted to US News in 2019-2021 to find the key support data that affects the improvement of the Grapho ranking "inaccurate. , Suspicious or highly misleading. "

He found that the university management department reported the type data of the ranking, including the scale of the class, the teacher's degree, and the graduate plan. This survey directly challenged the ranking of Columbia University. Sadis accused Brother Da Da Dan and exaggerate his words.

Subsequently, the officials of Ge Da adhered to the accuracy of this data, and said that the data of the data entering the university's ranking was not recognized by the industry standards -the practice of each ranking project was different -they were trying to meet the US News rankings skills requirement.

The incident later reversed. In June of this year, Coruste's chief of academic affairs Mary Boyce announced that Gorn was investigating the process of submission of his data and said that this year will not send any data to the US News ranking.

As of September 9, Boyce admitted in a statement that the school did not give "completely accurate" data, but provided data from "outdated and/or based on incorrect methods".

Brother University admits that no accurate data is provided in the scale of undergraduate classes and whether 100%of faculty and staff have doctoral degrees or terminal degrees. She said that no matter what the reason, any incomplete and accurate data they reported was inconsistent with the excellent standards that Ge Da persisted. They are deeply regretful for the defects in the previous report and are committed to doing better.

In fact, this is equivalent to publicly acknowledging that the data submitted by Coranda is indeed fake. On September 12th, the US News ranking announced that the ranking of Columbia's ranking fell, reaching the lowest point since the school since 1988, at the bottom of the eight Ivy League schools.

Several happy and more sorrows

At present, there are many universities in the world, but the US News ranking is undoubtedly one of the most influential universities in the world. Since the establishment, although the ranking has faced many criticisms, its influence has become increasingly expanded, which has played a vital role in the school's reputation in society, especially candidates to apply for universities.

The annual university rankings are announced, especially the university rankings such as the US News ranking are announced, and there are always a few happy and sad. Among them, the ranking of progressive progress is naturally happy. For example, in this year's ranking, New York University in the same city as Copa City has increased by 3 places compared with last year. The school's campus newspaper "Washington Plaza News" was specifically reported on the second day of the ranking.

The school spokesman John Beckman said: "New York University has been trying to promote our research career, teaching and learning, student experience, diversity, and the role of the economic flow engine. How beautiful it is to help improve one or more rankings. "

For another example, because Boston University has risen in this ranking, the school's report "Today BU" also reported specifically for this, which also specifically mentioned the school's situation in other rankings.

Of course, the top universities will not ignore such results. On September 19, the school newspaper of Princeton University, which ranked at the top of the US News, also made a special report on the title "Princeton's Twelve Contents for maintaining the US News ranking first".

It should be noted that although Gorno has not submitted data to the US News ranking this year, the latter still includes its own ranking and ranking according to public data. This "treatment" also includes the Ride College, which has refused to submit data to the ranking since 1995.

Games or arbitration

The US News ranking is the university ranking released by the year. Because of its huge influence, there have been two very opposite attitudes inside and outside the university and society. Supporters believe that ranking like arbiters provides a basis for students' choices; opponents think that this is just a game and it is not true. Among the supporters, in addition to a large number of candidates and their parents who regard the ranking of academic prestige arbiters, many university managers and colleges and students have public opposition, or they are publicly said that their rankings are not important or unrelated. Taking forward or promotion, it will also be mentioned and complacent about it.

Even the president of the United States University said that his favorite ranking is the ranking of his school in his school. Although this is a joke, it shows that the impact of educational managers can not escape university rankings on their own management and university.

For students, rankings are even more important. According to the US News ranking data, in 2021, about 40 million users visited their "best university" website.

In the report from the University of California Los Angeles, 15%of freshmen said that ranking is very important for them to choose a university. The primary reasons include the school's good academic reputation (63%) and graduates to find a good job (55%).

This is fully understandable that a student who can enter the second -ranked Columbia University in the country and a student who can enter the 18th university. No one will ignore the differences between the two. The top ranking means a prestigious school, and the second ranking is the top famous school.

Of course, many people oppose this kind of university ranking and believe that it is just a game. First of all, all rankings are essentially suspicious, because they are based on the information provided by the ranking institutions, and this information is almost not subject to any supervision and monitoring.

Secondly, the relevant standards and even classifications formulated in the ranking always cannot withstand the scrutiny, and even vulnerabilities, which leads to excessive simplification and distorting the value of higher education degrees, and only pay attention to the reputation and reputation of perception.

For example, the US News ranking will be the result of the investigation of the person in charge of the university as part of its calculation, such as asking them their views on the school's reputation.

However, it is understood that the response rate of the president of the university is now only 34%, a decrease of more than 10%compared to the past feedback rate. Some university presidents refused to fill in this questionnaire because they reflected that they could not evaluate a university that had not been or not to know at all.

Third, it is ridiculous to put hundreds of diversified hundreds of universities into a template for ranking.

In the end, more importantly, in real life, many companies and industries do not rely entirely on school prestige to decide whether to accept graduates, but pay more attention to personal ability.

It can be said that it is precisely the influence of the ranking, so there will be universities to take risks for this. Brother is by no means the first university to provide false numbers. The University of Washington was expelled from the US News ranking for exaggerated data in 2012.

Whether the university ranking endangers higher education

One of the most accused university rankings is the development of higher education. On July 22, "Forbes" published an article against Big Data for Big Data, discussing "whether the university ranking hurts higher education." Of course, this is just one of many questioning articles.

Overall, many scholars believe that when the university is discussing how high their rankings are, students and their families rely on the ranking to help them decide which universities apply for universities.

First of all, the ranking prompts universities to focus on those measured standards. The US News ranking uses multiple standards, including graduation rate and reservation rate (that is, a school's percentage of undergraduates continued to study at the school in the second year), the average SAT or ACT score of the freshman, etc. Resources, average class scale, and average debt of fresh graduates.

Because the US News ranking emphasizes the selectivity of college students and the performance of low -income background graduates, universities will pay more attention to the selection of enrollment, rather than helping students who usually need help.

Secondly, university rankings inspire universities to continue to play within the system. The universities participating in the ranking naturally provide data that is conducive to their own. Some specific data will be fake if they are not conducive to ranking.

Although the US News rankings, only a small part of the universities provided each year (less than 1%) indicates that the data they provide is incorrect, but the counterfeiters are not a small number, and the consequences are extremely serious. In March last year, the dean of the Business School of Tianpu University was sentenced to 14 months in prison for deliberately forging data from 2014-2018.

How to think of the university ranking

Any university ranking has its standards and basis. These standards are different from the annual situation. The main basis for the US News ranking this year is the graduation rate and reservation rate, social liquidity, graduation rate performance, undergraduate academic reputation, teacher resources from 2021-2022, the selectivity of students who enrolled in the fall of 2021, the financial resources of each student, the financial resources of each student, Average alumni donation rate and graduate liabilities.

Based on this, the US News ranking defines 443 universities in the United States as "National University". This ranking is not only the total ranking of the school, but also various majors, including undergraduate, graduate schools, and the rankings of various indicators, as many as 13 categories, and these rankings are independent of each other. In other words, the first ranking of colleges and universities does not mean that it ranks first among all categories. For example, the total ranking of Princeton University is the first for 12 consecutive years, and the top 10 of the 10 categories are also ranked in the top 10, but in terms of social liquidity, it is far behind other universities, ranking only 186th.

The university ranking has its own positive aspect, which can enhance the reputation of colleges and universities in society and raise its degree value. But if the ranking declines, it will naturally have a negative impact on it. In June of this year, after Corusteen announced the review of its data, two graduates filed a lawsuit against the school, claiming that data issues caused serious concerns about the school's degree value and legitimacy.

In my opinion, the university ranking should be dialectically understood. On the one hand, we must fully realize that all ranking institutions are not neutral. Various ranking indicators are easy to decentralized colleges and universities' attention to their core mission, and even damage to determine the interests of students in the future. This should attract great attention.

But on the other hand, it cannot ignore the huge influence brought by the university ranking to a university. Just as Difoven, the former principal of Ride College, who had issued a monograph to discuss the university ranking, said that if the ranking disappears, most universities will be happy, but as long as candidates and applicants take the rankings seriously, educators should also take the university ranking seriously.

It can not be valued, but also can use its intangible influence and value, perhaps to deal with the more wise strategies of the university rankings that are continuously launched.

"China Science News" (2022-09-20 The 3rd edition of the 3rd University observes the original title "University Ranking, What is Columbia University of the University of Columbia")

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