University of Delaware
Office of Public Relations
The Messenger
Vol. 5, No. 1/1995
UD programs ranked in national studies

     The University of Delaware earned recognition in three
recent college rankings, one by the National Research Council
(NRC) and the other by U.S. News & World Report. One UD doctoral
program earned "distinguished" marks, and two others were
characterized as "strong" in a report on the nation's research-
doctorate programs, released Sept. 13 by the National Research
Council. The study included 13 UD doctoral programs, all of them
rated as effective.
     According to an article in the Sept. 22 issue of The
Chronicle of Higher Education, possible ratings for quality in
the NRC study included "distinguished," "strong," "good,"
"adequate," "marginal" and "not sufficient for doctoral
education." In the area of effectiveness, possible ratings were
"extremely effective," "reasonably effective," "minimally
effective" and "not effective."
     The UD chemical engineering program, ranked eighth in its
field of 93 programs, was judged "distinguished" in quality and
was rated "extremely effective." Rated as "strong" and
"reasonably effective" were art history (ranked at 15th out of
38) and psychology (ranked at 57.5th out of 185).
     "I am proud to see our programs receive these rankings,
because I know how much hard work and dedicated effort go into
building them," University Provost Mel Schiavelli said. "The goal
ahead for us is to have other programs achieve such national
recognition."
     Other UD doctoral programs rated "good" in quality and
"reasonably effective" were biochemistry and molecular biology,
chemistry, civil engineering, linguistics, materials science,
mechanical engineering and physics. Mathematics was rated "good"
in quality and "minimally effective."
     Rated "adequate" in quality and "minimally effective" were
electrical engineering and sociology.
     The NRC study, which updates and expands the council's 1982
assessment of graduate programs, examined quality and
effectiveness of more than 3,600 doctoral programs in 41 fields
at 274 U.S. universities. The evaluation was based on data on
students and faculty provided from universities; information from
national databases on faculty research productivity and
demographic characteristics of program graduates; and peer
assessments by nearly 8,000 university faculty members.
     The NRC recognizes only 41 different doctoral fields as
eligible for inclusion in the survey and then sets very strict
criteria (such as a minimum number of doctoral degrees granted
during a specific time period) that must be met before a program
is allowed to participate in the survey.
     "The University of Delaware only met the eligibility
criteria in about a dozen fields, in large part because we do not
offer doctoral degrees in many of the fields listed by NRC," said
Schiavelli. "It should be noted though that many of our premier
doctoral programs, such as marine studies, represent fields not
officially recognized by the NRC for purposes of this survey."
     In an article on "America's Best Colleges" in the Sept. 18
issue of U.S. News, the UD College of Engineering tied for 46th
place among the top 50 undergraduate engineering schools. Other
schools tying for 46th were Cooper Union, Drexel, Vanderbilt and
Washington universities, Rutgers at New Brunswick and the
universities of California at Santa Barbara, Iowa and Missouri at
Rolla.
     In U.S. News' overall ranking of national universities,
Delaware appeared with 64 other schools in the second tier, after
the top 50. In all, 229 schools were evaluated in this category.
     Also in September, the University was listed 52nd in a
ranking of 100 of the nation's top college values by Money
Magazine.