UA Results

On R and S:

One overall ranking results from explicit faculty determinations of which criteria matter in given disciplines (Direct, survey-based or S-weights). Faculty were asked to rate the relative importance of variables. Their ratings of these categories were used to weight the scores on each factor. This direct approach is a “bottom-up” approach that builds up the ratings from the importance that faculty members gave to specific program characteristics independent of reference to any actual program. These can be thought of as ‘idealized’ weights.

 

The second ratings/rankings come from the implicit weightings given by faculty (Regression-derived or R-weights). Here faculty were asked to rate the quality of specific programs. This overall quality rating was the dependent variable in a regression where the various individual factor scores were the independent variables. The regression coefficients were used to weight the scores on each factor. The regression-based method is a “top-down” approach that starts with ratings of actual programs and uses statistical techniques to infer the weights given by the raters to specific program characteristics. While not a reputational measure, it captures the implicit weights used in reputational judgments.