‘US News’ pulls Columbia University from its 2022 rankings

As questions continue to remain unanswered about the accuracy of data that Columbia University submitted to US News & World Report for the 2022 edition of its Best Colleges rankings (first published September 2021), US News reported on 7 July that it was “unranking” Columbia in those rankings, writes Michael T Nietzel for Forbes.

The magazine said it took the action after Columbia “failed to respond to multiple US News requests that the university substantiate certain data it previously submitted to US News”. Columbia’s troubles began, when in February of this year, Michael Thaddeus, a professor of mathematics at the university, posted a lengthy critique of many of the data that Columbia had submitted for the rankings, which placed it second (tied with Harvard) among the nation’s best universities for 2022.

Columbia defended its data at first. But on Thursday of last week, just before the 1 July deadline for submitting new data to US News, Columbia changed its tune and, in a statement by Provost Mary Boyce, said it would not submit data this year, adding that the university had “embarked on a review of our data collection and submissions process”.
Full report on the Forbes site