Mason Appears in Recent Rankings - Mason News - George Mason ...

Mason Appears in Recent Rankings

Posted: June 14, 2012 at 4:43 pm, Last Updated: June 14, 2012 at 4:54 pm

By Robin Herron

Just when you thought universities had been ranked in every possible way to cover every aspect of their operations, a new ?list? comes along.

The latest ranking by the London-based Times Higher Education magazine, called the ?100 Under 50? list, which was published May 31, comprises universities around the world that have been operating for no more than 50 years.

Mason, founded in 1972, fits into that category, and it falls at 57 on this new list. Eight other U.S. universities join Mason on the 100 Under 50 list; Mason is the only Virginia school.

The new list is based on the Times Higher Education World University Rankings (Mason sits in the 301-350 range on the current World University Rankings), but it gives a different weight to some of the criteria, especially the ?subjective indicators of academic prestige.? Therefore, in the 100 Under 50 list, the reputation weighting was reduced from one-third to about one-fifth.

The Times Higher Education explains its rationale this way:

?It was argued that older institutions can expect in general to enjoy greater global prestige based on their longer heritage of excellence. Older universities have deeper, wider and more established alumni networks, with graduates more likely to hold senior positions in universities and society at large, all of which can have a greater impact on reputation.?

Other criteria used in the ranking but tweaked for the 100 Under 50 list include research volume, income and reputation; number of research citations; teaching and learning environment; international outlook; and industry income from knowledge transfer.

Another recent ranking by Diverse: Issues in Higher Education magazine of the top 100 U.S. institutions awarding the greatest number of undergraduate degrees in 2010-11 to minority students ranks Mason at 29th for awarding degrees to Asian-Americans; 75th for Hispanic students; and 54th for all minority groups.

?Like many schools, Mason fares diversely in rankings, including the recent ones, though our trend tends to be upward in most cases,? says Mason Provost Peter Stearns. ?The impact of youth on reputation, and funding levels, form our main constraints. Obviously, we need to learn from rankings without taking them too seriously.?

Mason has ranked highly on other prominent lists in recent years, including the following:

• Mason was ranked in the top five ?Up-and-Coming Institutions? in an annual survey conducted by U.S. News & World Report.
• Mason was ranked in the top 200 of the Academic Ranking of World Universities, which is produced annually by China?s Shanghai Jiao Tong University?s Institute of Higher Education.
• Kiplinger?s Personal Finance magazine named Mason to its national list of the top 100 ?Best Values in Public Colleges.?
• For the third year in a row, the Chronicle of Higher Education, the premier publication for academic news and issues, named Mason one of the ?Great Colleges to Work For.?
• Mason was ranked number 57 among U.S. and Canadian universities on the ?Webometrics Ranking of World Universities,? which analyzes the web content and presence of a university.
• Mason ranked 68 among the top 100 of ?America?s Best College Buys? in a report compiled by Forbes magazine and the Center for College Affordability and Productivity. And on Forbes? overall ?Top Colleges? list of more than 600 undergraduate institutions, Mason ranks 273.
• Mason was recognized as one of the few universities in the nation with little or no disparity in graduation rates between African American and Hispanic students compared with white students, according to two recent reports by the Education Trust.

Write to Robin Herron at rherron@gmu.edu

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