Rise of American Research Universities: Elites and Challengers in the Postwar Era, The

Academe, Jul/Aug 1998 by Geiger, Roger

On the whole, the comparisons with the NRC ratings do not inspire confidence in the Graham-Diamond approach. Their designation of rising university does not predict improvement from the 1982 to the 1995 ratings. The stronger universities in this group seem to be adequately heralded by their national peer ratings. And the real anomalies were boosted by the methodological tilt toward small faculties concentrated in letters and sciences.

It is unfortunate that the authors have not made a stronger case for their rising universities by providing some analysis of internal factors that might have enhanced quality. They take the position that "our evidence does not enable us to explain why some institutions performed significantly better than others," and instead offer "plausible speculations [based] on general historical trends." But such speculation cannot account for the patterns they found.

The per-capita enumeration of research achievement provides an alternative, if laborious, approach to assessing academic hierarchy. Although the method may have the potential for further refinement, like other ranking systems it possesses inherent limitations. This volume nevertheless deserves to be read. The authors provide an intelligent, thorough analysis of the variegated structures of research universities. They are to be commended particularly for illuminating the fundamental, but elusive, distinctions between private and public universities and the special role of medical schools. In this respect, the study advances understanding of the relation between university structures and the academic research system.

Notes

1. L. V. Jones, G. Lindzey, and P. E. Coggeshall, An Assessment of Research-Doctorate Programs in the United States, 5 vols. (Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press, 1982); M. L. Goldberger, et al. ResearchDoctorate Programs in the United States: Continuity and Change (Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press, 1995). The 1995 ratings were published when the volume under review was well advanced and were used only once by Graham and Davis.

2. Institutional rankings based on the 1995 ratings were calculated by the author; for 1982, see Roger Geiger and Irwin Feller, "The Dispersion of Academic Research in the 1980s," Journal of Higher Education 66 (1995): 336-60. Private and public universities are ranked separately.

Roger Geiger teaches in the higher education program at Pennsylvania State University.