September 30, 2010
The PhD program in pharmaceutical sciences at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy is highly rated in a new assessment conducted by the National Research Council.
The rankings were part of the NRC’s long-anticipated release of assessments for research doctorate programs at 212 U.S. colleges and universities, the first conducted since 1995 and only the third ever undertaken. The NRC evaluated more than 5,000 programs in sixty-two fields. The results were released on September 28. The NRC represents the national academies, which advise the federal government in all areas of science and technology.
UNC submitted information about fifty-three programs as part of an NRC process dating back to 2006. The results include overall ranges of rankings—covering 90 percent of the estimated rankings for a program—as well as ranges along dimensional measures. The ratings are based on twenty key variables reflecting faculty quality and research productivity, student graduation rates, student activities, various demographics, Graduate Record Examination scores, among other categories.
The NRC emphasized that the ratings are illustrative; it is impossible to associate a specific numerical ranking with a program. It can only be stated accurately by percentile ranges.
In two of the NRC’s overall ranking methods, the doctoral program in pharmaceutical sciences could fall within the top 10 percent of similar programs.
The NRC also used dimensional categories designed to reflect one aspect of a doctoral program’s quality: research activity, student services and outcomes, and diversity. In research activity, the PhD program could fall within the top 10 percent of programs nationally.
Steve Matson, PhD, dean of the Graduate School, said the NRC results already are providing valuable feedback that will help make the University better and give future students more helpful information to consider as they make choices about graduate education.
“Our focus will be on using this information to help improve programs,” he said. “We don’t view the NRC process as perfect, but it’s a positive step forward for evaluating the quality of doctoral education in the United States. That is important because our doctoral program graduates are a critical part of the highly skilled workforce our nation needs to remain competitive.”
UNC’s full NRC results are available on the Graduate School Web site, http://gradschool.unc.edu/policies/nrc/results.html. The NRC’s project Web site is available at http://www.nap.edu/rdp.
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