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Highly ranked departments say they’re gratified but not surprised

A number of the University of Colorado at Boulder’s doctoral programs, including those in geography, integrative physiology psychology and neuroscience and astrophysical and planetary sciences, were highly rated in a report released recently by the National Research Council.

The long-awaited findings from the NRC’s national study of doctoral programs at more than 200 universities are based on a more comprehensive assessment of doctoral programs than popular ranking systems currently available can offer.

Leaders of these well-ranked programs at CU, meanwhile, say the results are gratifying and reflect the high-quality of the university’s research and teaching.

The data-based assessment of research-doctorate programs in the United States reported comparative data on more than 5,000 Ph.D. programs in 59 fields or disciplines. The 33 CU-Boulder programs in the study were assessed in 32 fields or disciplines, such as history, mechanical engineering and physics.

Neither programs in business nor education were included in the study, nor were relatively small programs.

NRC reported “illustrative” ranges of rankings on overall program quality and on three dimensions of doctoral education-research activity, student support and outcomes, and gender and ethnic diversity of the academic environment. The NRC approach takes into account many factors.

The rankings are based on 20 indicators ranging from number of students in 2005, faculty publications from 2001-2006, graduation rates, faculty honors and awards—all combined using a lengthy and complex statistical-analysis process.

Two CU-Boulder programs received overall rankings as high as second in their fields. These were geography (ranked in the top 4 percent of 49 programs) and aerospace engineering sciences (in the top 6 percent of 31 programs).

Other geography programs ranked at this level include those at UCLA, UC-Berkeley and the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

Two other CU-Boulder programs—integrative physiology and astrophysical and planetary sciences—received overall rankings as high as fourth in their fields. Other programs ranked in the top five or top 5 percent were psychology, mechanical engineering, civil engineering and physics.

Robert Mazzeo, professor of integrative physiology and that department’s graduate-program coordinator, said he was pleased to see that the department’s graduate program and faculty were “getting the recognition they deserved which, in my opinion, was long overdue.”

“The major strengths of our program center around the training environment available to the graduate students,” Mazzeo said. This includes faculty who have outstanding publication and grant-funding records providing excellent research opportunities as well as funding support for grad students, he noted.

“Additionally, these same faculty teach grad courses in their area of expertise, allowing for a strong academic foundation for the students. Graduate students regularly attend both journal club and lab meetings for their respective research groups. �鶹��Ժ are well supported with either (research) or (teaching) appointments. Upon graduation, placement of grad students is very high.”

Mazzeo did note that the rankings are assembled from data collected five years ago. “Our department has grown even stronger since then with the addition of young, talented faculty, improved research resources, more diverse grad-level courses and our involvement with the Integrative Physiology Science Education Initiative staff.”

Mitch Begelman, professor and chair of CU-Boulder’s Department of Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences, noted that the latest rankings are more nuanced than those of the past. This time, Begelman’s department ranked as high as fourth among its peers and as high as the top 12 percent of its peers.

“The new rankings do not simply present a list; instead, they allow a prospective graduate student to generate custom rankings based on the factors that he or she considers most important,” Begelman said.

“Nevertheless, according to almost any set of priorities, the new data show that CU’s standing in astrophysics and planetary science has risen considerably,” he added.

“One interesting feature that emerges is that we’ve pulled ahead of traditional arch-competitors in astrophysics such as UC Santa Cruz and the University of Arizona,” which have access to large, ground-based optical telescopes.

“My interpretation of the new rankings is that such access is not as important as it used to be—we are benefiting from our strategic investments in new technologies such as observatories in space (e.g., the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph on Hubble, designed and built at CU) and radio/submillimeter telescopes (such as the CCAT submillimeter telescope to be built in Chile, which CU has joined as a founding partner),” Begelman said.

Paul Beale, professor and chair of physics, said his department is “delighted with the NRC report. Our ranking of 14th among all universities and sixth among public universities reflects our many accomplishments since the 1995 NRC report in which we were ranked 38th. Our dramatic rise recognizes our outstanding faculty, staff and students and their many research and educational accomplishments.

“Since 1995, research funding to our faculty has quadrupled, and our graduate and undergraduate programs have nearly doubled in size. During that same period, 14 different faculty members in physics have been awarded one or more of the leading international research awards in their fields, six have been recognized with national teaching awards, 15 junior faculty  members have won the leading national awards for young researchers, six faculty members have been elected to the one or more of the national academies, and three members of the physics faculty have been awarded the Nobel Prize.

“We are very proud to be recognized along with the many other highly ranked programs at CU. CU’s high rankings across a wide range of academic disciplines testifies to the university’s commitment to excellence.”

Lewis O. Harvey Jr., professor and chair of the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, echoed those sentiments. “It really reflects the dedication and commitment of the faculty and of our students,” Harvey said. �鶹��Ժ including undergraduates are involved in many research activities, he added.

“A lot of our success wouldn’t be possible without their help.”

The last NRC assessment of doctoral programs was released in September 1995. The NRC functions under the auspices of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering and the Institute of Medicine, and carries out most of the studies done in their names.

CU’s Office of News Services contributed to this report.