US News & World Report has reported that Robert Morse has retired as Chief Data Strategist after half a century with the media company, which publishes America’s Best Colleges and Best Global Universities and several other rankings.
Morse is a founding member of IREG Observatory on Academic Ranking and Excellence, and a member of its Executive Committee.
Morse joined US News in 1976 and his involvement in ranking began in 1983 when the newspaper, as it was then, published a small reputation survey of American universities. After that, the rankings expanded to include an array of metrics that have become extremely influential in American and international higher education.
The America’s best colleges ranking was subject to vociferous criticism from academics and journalists. Nonetheless, it has been of great value in matching students and institutions. In recent years the methodology has been revised to include measures of student employability and social mobility. In 2014 US News also began publishing Best Global Universities, which emphasizes research quality.
These rankings have, whatever their defects, set an example of data integrity. In 2022, for example, Columbia was demoted from 2nd to 18th in the ranking because of the submission of misleading or inaccurate data.
US News stated that Erik Brooks and Kenneth Hines will now lead the Education Data team.