UCI’s new School of Education jumps in U.S. News’ graduate school ranking
Irvine, Calif., March 12, 2013 – UC Irvine’s School of Education is among a number of campus graduate programs moving up in U.S. News & World Report’s 2014 ranking of “Best Graduate Schools,” announced today.
The education school, approved in July by the University of California regents, leaped six spots, to 37th nationwide. Before its transition to a school, the degree program’s excellence had made it the highest-ranked department of education on the U.S. News & World Report list.
“This ranking is further evidence of the strong positive trajectory of our school,” said Dean Deborah Lowe Vandell. “Last year we were 43rd, and the year before we were 47th, so we’re continuing to move up. We know that rankings can be fraught with error, but it still feels good to celebrate the growing recognition of our faculty and students and the importance of their work in improving education in California and the world.”
The School of Humanities’ history department also advanced six positions on the list, to 36th. New Dean Georges Van Den Abbeele said, “UCI is the clear national leader in the growing fields of world and transnational history, and it’s gratifying to see this ranking reflect the reality of our strength by this impressive leap forward.”
The research arm of UC Irvine’s School of Medicine, under the leadership of Dean Ralph Clayman, rose two spots, to 42nd. It particularly excelled in research funding; an average of $193,500 per faculty member put it among the top 15 medical schools nationwide in that category.
The Henry Samueli School of Engineering, with Dean Gregory Washington at the helm, climbed two spots, to 37th. In addition, its aerospace, chemical, electrical, environmental, materials and mechanical engineering specialties showed ranking improvements.
In the School of Social Sciences, led by Dean Barbara Dosher, the Department of Sociology also moved up two positions, to 25th. The Department of Criminology, Law & Society, in the School of Social Ecology, led by Dean Val Jenness, maintained its 2013 fifth-place ranking.
Rankings for programs in the fine arts and sciences were all unchanged from last year’s edition because U.S. News & World Report only re-ranks them every four years. The UC Irvine School of Law was not ranked because, at four years old, it has received just provisional accreditation from the American Bar Association.
To arrive at a school’s rank, U.S. News & World Report statisticians examined the data for each quality indicator. They then standardized the value of each indicator. The weights applied to the indicators – which are discussed in the methodology explanations that appear with the tables – reflect their relative importance, as determined in consultation with experts in each field. The final scores were rescaled so that the highest-scoring school was assigned 100; the other schools’ scores were recalculated as a percentage of that. The scores were then rounded to the nearest whole number, and schools were placed in descending order.
Every school’s performance is presented relative to those with which it’s compared. A school with an overall score of 100 did not necessarily top out on every indicator; it accumulated the highest composite score. A school’s rank reflects the number of schools that sit above it; if three schools are tied at No. 1, the next school will be ranked fourth, not second. Tied schools are listed alphabetically.
About the University of California, Irvine: Founded in 1965, UCI is a top-ranked university dedicated to research, scholarship and community service. Led by Chancellor Michael Drake since 2005, UCI is among the most dynamic campuses in the University of California system, with more than 28,000 undergraduate and graduate students, 1,100 faculty and 9,400 staff. Orange County’s second-largest employer, UCI contributes an annual economic impact of $4.3 billion. For more UCI news, visit wp.communications.uci.edu.
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