Rankings

General interest summaries of our rankings research are available: Oberlin Alumni Magazine, The Chronicle of Higher Education, The New York Times
On Obama's Ratings Proposal: The New York Times (Room for Debate)
Bastedo, Michael N. and Nicholas A. Bowman. 2011. College Rankings as an Interorganizational Dependency: Establishing the Foundation for Strategic and Institutional Accounts. Research in Higher Education 52: 3-23.
Higher education administrators believe that revenues are linked tocollege rankings and act accordingly, particularly those at research universities. Although rankings are clearly influential for many schools and colleges, this fundamental assumption has yet to be tested empirically. Drawing on data from multiple resource providers in higher education, we find that the influence of rankings depends on constituencies’ placement in the higher education field. Resource providers who are vulnerable to the status hierarchy of higher education – college administrators, faculty, alumni, and out-of-state students – are significantly influenced by rankings. Those on the periphery of the organizational field, such as foundations and industry, are largely unaffected. Although rankings are designed largely for stakeholders outside of higher education, their strongest influence is on those within the higher education field.
Bowman, Nicholas A. and Michael N. Bastedo. 2010. Anchoring Effects on World University Rankings: Exploring Biases in Reputation Scores. Higher Education 61: 431-444.
Despite ongoing debates about their uses and validity, university rankings are a popular means to compare institutions within a country and around the world. Anchoring theory suggests that these rankings may influence assessments of institutional reputation, and this effect may be particularly strong when a new rankings system is introduced. We test this possibility by examining data from the first three years of the Times Higher Education Supplement (THES) World University Rankings. Consistent with an anchoring hypothesis, the initial THES rankings influenced peer assessments of reputation in subsequent surveys, but second-year rankings were not related to changes in reputation in the third year. Furthermore, as expected, early peer assessment ratings were not associated with changes in future rankings. These findings provide strong evidence for an anchoring effect on assessments of institutional reputation. We discuss the usefulness of these peer assessments, along with ways in which reputational surveys can be improved.
Media Coverage: The New Yorker (Malcolm Gladwell), Chronicle of Higher Education, Inside Higher Ed, Times Higher Education, Nature, Edward Fiske (Minding the Campus), Rethinking Admissions, TaxProf, Registrarism; University World News, Education Writers Association, Michigan Alumnus, Minnesota Public Radio
Bastedo, Michael N. and Nicholas A. Bowman. 2010. The U.S. News and World Report College Rankings: Modeling Institutional Effects on Organizational Reputation. American Journal of Education 116: 163-183.

Processes of certification and evaluation are some of the most powerful institutional forces in organizational fields, and in the higher education field, rankings are a primary factor in assessing organizational performance. This paper explores the institutional effects of the U.S. News & World Report rankings on the reputational assessments made by senior administrators at peer universities and liberal arts colleges. In the estimation of a structural equation model, we found that published college rankings have a significant impact on future peer assessments, independent of changes in organizational quality and performance, and even of prior peer assessments of reputation.
Media Coverage: Inside Higher Ed, Chronicle of Higher Education, U.S. News & World Report, Times Higher Education, Washington Monthly, The Daily Orange, The Dartmouth, Rethinking Admissions, TaxProf, University World News, Korean Council for University Education, The Daily Texan, Education Portal
Bowman, Nicholas A. and Michael N. Bastedo. 2009. Getting on the Front Page: Organizational Reputation, Status Signals, and the Impact of U.S. News and World Report Rankings on Student Decisions. Research in Higher Education 50: 415-436. Subgroup Analyses.

Recent studies have suggested that a causal link exists between college rankings and subsequent admissions indicators. However, it is unclear how these effects vary across institutional type (i.e., national universities vs. liberal arts colleges) or whether these effects persist when controlling for other factors that affect admissions outcomes. Using admissions data for top-tier institutions from fall 1998 to fall 2005, we found that moving onto the front page of the U.S. News rankings provides a substantial boost in the following year’s admissions indicators for all institutions. In addition, the effect of moving up or down within the top tier has a strong impact on institutions ranked in the top 25, especially among national universities. In contrast, the admissions outcomes of liberal arts colleges—particularly those in the lower half of the top tier—were more strongly influenced by student prices.
Media Coverage: The New York Times, U.S. News & World Report, The Economist, The Atlantic, AnnArbor.com, Think Progress, Public Agenda, Thought du Jour. Our favorite: Beervana.

Revised: May 7, 2014