The annual U.S. News & World Report rankings of undergraduate colleges and universities hit news stands today and is already generating criticism from schools, students and other commentators. Although the controversy is not unusual, this year’s debate adds a twist that could impact the magazine’s graduate business school rankings in the coming years. The story started this spring, when leaders of many small liberal arts colleges joined together to boycott the U.S. News & World Report reputation survey, which accounts for 25% of the undergraduate rankings. A similar survey is used in the business school rankings, and asks top academic officials to rate schools based on their personal opinions of the programs. Critics call the reputation survey a self-perpetuating cycle, since a school’s place in the rankings impacts public perception of its quality, which is then reflected in the results of the next year’s reputation survey. At the undergraduate level, response rates for this year’s survey dropped to an all time low, raising even more questions about the usefulness of this measure in evaluating schools. Although the anti-rankings backlash is still strongest at the undergraduate level, most graduate programs are watching the battle carefully. Says Kate Will of the Annapolis Group, “I don’t think there is anyone in higher education who is not thinking about this issue.”
In other news, Kellogg announced recently that it will add a global course requirement to its MBA curricula, effective June 2008. The requirement will apply to the all of the school’s MBA programs (full-time, part-time and executive) and Dean Dipak Jain says it is part of Kellogg’s mission to develop “leaders equipped to thrive in the challenging global business landscape.” Some courses expected to count towards the new requirement include Cross-Cultural Negotiation, Global Initiatives in Management (discussed in an April Trivia Tuesday column), International Business Strategy, International Finance, and International Marketing. It seems likely that the new policy will generate continued growth in Kellogg’s international offerings, as students seek out relevant courses through which to fulfill the requirement.
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