Abstract and Introduction
Abstract
Objective. To determine the association between characteristics of colleges and schools of pharmacy and their rankings according to US News and World Report.
Methods. The 2008 US News and World Report, mean ranking scores (ranging from 2.0 to 5.0) for 78 US colleges and schools of pharmacy were compared with college and school characteristics, including academic program, students, faculty, and scholarship. The adjusted difference in mean ranking score associated with each characteristic was determined using a multivariate mixed linear regression model.
Results. The most powerful identified predictors of mean ranking score included the amount of grant funding (National Institutes of Health [NIH] and non-NIH funding) a college or school of pharmacy received and the yearly publication rates of its department of pharmacy (p≤0.001 for both). The adjusted mean ranking scores for colleges and schools receiving >$5 million and $1 million to $5 million in scholarly grant funding were respectively 0.77 and 0.26 points higher than those receiving none. Adjusted mean ranking scores for colleges and schools whose departments of pharmacy practice had publishing rates of >20 papers and 11 to 20 papers were respectively 0.40 and 0.17 points higher than those publishing ≤10 (p<0.05 for both).
Conclusion. The characteristic of colleges and schools of pharmacy most associated with US News and World Report rankings appears to be their scholarly productivity.
Introduction
Nearly 30 years ago, US News and World Report (USNWR) began publishing rankings of US colleges and universities. Although this practice started purely as a reputation survey, the methodology behind these rankings has evolved for some fields, such as liberal arts, but not in pharmacy, to include objective indicators of academic excellence (eg, Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education designation, peer assessment, student retention, faculty and financial resources, student selectivity, alumni giving, graduation rate performance, and high school counselor ratings) in addition to perceived reputation.
Despite the comprehensive nature of the undergraduate rankings, USNWR uses a different, less stringent methodology for health science schools. The rankings for these institutions, including pharmacy colleges and schools, are still based solely on a peer-assessment survey instrument completed by deans and other administrators. The peer assessment survey from which this information is taken, however, had a response rate of only 56%. Further, those who were asked to complete the survey instrument did not provide any information on what school characteristics they used to determine their responses/scoring.
Despite research suggesting that students base their matriculation decisions more on overall academic reputation or prestige than on specific rank, undergraduate colleges and health-science schools have begun to question the methodology of the rankings and to push back against them. In 2007, a group of US colleges began boycotting the rankings by refusing to complete reputation survey instruments or provide essential data. Ascione's recent editorial in the Journal highlighted the folly of the pharmacy ranking methodology and recommended potential actions by deans of colleges and schools of pharmacy to eliminate or improve the ranking process. Although medical school rankings are based on 7 more indicators than are pharmacy rankings, a panel of medical school deans, experts, and students debated the methodology for USNWR's "Best Medical Schools" rankings in 2011, questioning the use of Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) scores and research dollars as criteria, along with the weighting for each component.
Considering that pharmacy and other health science colleges and schools rankings are subjected to weak ranking methodology, the desire for stronger methods of evaluating these educational institutions requires knowing what characteristics influence USNWR pharmacy rankings. To address this issue, we sought to determine the association between USNWR college or school of pharmacy rankings and their characteristics, using as many of the same indicators used by the undergraduate USNWR ranking method as possible and adding pharmacy-specific indicators.