Several UO science programs were standouts in the recently released ratings of graduate programs conducted by the National Research Council.
The National Research Council study uses a variety of statistical metrics to rate programs at the top 222 research institutions in the United States. The strength of a university’s graduate programs is a clear indicator of its strength as a research institution.
Highlights for UO sciences include:
The Department of Physics ranked third of 160 programs in publications per faculty member. This metric is the most important in the NRC rankings because it measures how involved faculty members are in the creation of new knowledge.
The Department of Biology ranked tenth of 120 programs in terms of awards per faculty member, including some of the most prominent research prizes in higher education.
The Department of Psychology ranked sixth of 236 programs in terms of citations per publication, an important measure that indicates the wide-reaching influence of research conducted here.
(In the social sciences, the Department of Geography was also a standout, ranking third of 49 programs nationwide in terms of publications per faculty member and third in citations per publication. .)
“We are not as large as most of our comparator institutions,” noted Scott Coltrane, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. “But because the new NRC ratings control for size, they reveal that UO faculty members are among the best in the nation and that UO science programs are on the rise.”
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