The Truth and Consequences of Academic Rankings – What is the world of rankings all about?

In this article published in the Public Administration Review, Rimon Partner Stephen Trachtenberg addresses the veracity and legitimacy of Higher Education rankings and how they work.

According to Dr. Trachtenberg, “U.S. News and other such ranking vehicles are not in the education business. Their vested interest is profit, selling a service. When colleges complain about the methodology used to establish the scorecard, the rankers simply tweak the formula, eliminating one category and adding another. The results rarely change: the top 50 are more or less the same each year-one school goes up two or three places, another comes down-and the results demonstrate marginal differences at best.”

“I have publicly debated the editor of the U.S. News rankings. We went head to head: he strongly defended his methodology, and I defended with equal vigor the illusion he presents. On his side, the public deserves to learn the truth about the world of higher education, and for me, the populace deserves not to be fooled.”

Click here to read the full article published in the Public Administration Review. (Vol. 76, Iss. 5, pp 803-804. © 2016 by The American Society for Public Administration.)

More about Dr. Trachtenberg here