By SUE WUETCHER
Reporter Editor
The university ranks among the top 26-50 public and private research
universities in the country in a new data-based report by a University
of Florida research center.
UB posted improvement in six of the nine measures of performance for
which accurate and valid data were available and that "reflect quality
of research university performance," according to "The Top American Research
Universities," the annual report charting the comparative performance
of research institutions by TheCenter at the University of Florida.
The study does not produce a single ranked list of the top institutions,
the report says, because "the difference separating these top universities
is not sufficiently great to justify making a single, rank-ordered list."
UB Provost Elizabeth D. Capaldi noted that UB is "making strides in
our quest to become a world-class university, as indicated by our improvement.
"We are especially pleased by our gains in total research expenditures
and federal research expenditurescritical indicators of competitiveness
for a major research universityas well as improvements in private support,
faculty quality and advanced training."
In compiling the reportdeveloped as an alternative to what many
in the academic community consider to be the flawed rankings of colleges
and universities by such entities as U.S. News and World Reportresearchers
at TheCenter categorized major research universities into groups based
on their performance on the nine measures. Major research universities
were defined as those with more than $20 million in annual federal research
expenditures in 1999.
The measures are total research expenditures; federal research expenditures;
endowment assets; annual giving; the number of faculty members in the
National Academiesthe National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy
of Engineering and the Institutes of Medicine; faculty awards; the number
of doctoral degrees awarded; the number of postdoctoral appointees, and
the SAT scores of entering freshmen.
Institutions in the top group rank among the nation's top 25 institutions
on all nine measures. Those in the second group rank in the top 25 on
eight measures, and so on. A similar methodology was used to categorize
institutions that ranked 26-50 on the same nine measures.
UB scored in the 26-50 range on three of the nine measures of performance:
total research expenditures, with a national rank of 50, up from last
year's rank of 53; faculty awards, with a national rank of 39, up from
50 last year, and number of doctorates awarded, with a national rank of
40, up from 47 last year.
Although not scoring in the 26-50 range, UB posted improvement in its
national ranking on three other measures. The university increased its
ranking on federal research expenditures (up to 59 from 64 last year),
annual giving (up to 148 from 207 last year) and postdoctoral appointees
(up to 52 from 55 last year).
When compared only to other public research institutionsits control
rankUB scored in the top 25 on one measure: faculty awards, with a rank
of 22, up from 29 last year. The university was in the top 26-50 on six
measures: total research expenditures (control rank of 32, up from 35
last year); federal research expenditures (control rank of 35, up from
39); endowment assets (control rank of 26); National Academy members (control
rank of 50); doctorates granted (control rank of 27, up from 33 last year),
and postdoctoral appointees (control rank of 29, up from 32).
UB showed declines in both the national and control rankings on only
three measures. Although the university posted an increase in its endowment
assets from $438,002,000 in 1999 to $447,322,000 in 2000, other universities
outpaced UB in their endowment growth, causing UB to slip in the national
rankings from 85 to 95 and in the control rankings from 24 to 26.
Moreover, while the number of UB faculty members who are National Academy
members remained unchanged, other universities saw increases in their
memberships, resulting in a drop for UB's national ranking from 81 to
83 and in its control ranking from 48 to 50.
In addition, the SAT scores of UB's entering freshmen had decreased
from a median score of 1120 in 1998 to 1110 in 1999. As a result, the
university's ranking on this measure slipped from 344 to 377 nationally
and 76 to 86 in the control rankings.
However, the SAT scores of UB freshmen have improved in the succeeding
years and the median score climbed back to 1120 for 2000, according to
the Office of Institutional Analysis.
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