Revisiting the relationship between institutional rank and student engagement

Abstract

College rankings dominate the conversation regarding quality in postsecondary education. However, the criteria used to rank institutions often have nothing to do with the quality of education students receive. A decade ago, Pike (2004) demonstrated that institutional rank had little association with student involvement in educational activities. In a reprise of Pike’s research, the current study examines the relationship between three institutional ranking schemes, U.S. News, Forbes, and Washington Monthly and student engagement, as measured by the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE). Findings reveal few relationships exist between NSSE’s measures of student engagement and the three institutional ranking schemes, except for a modest negative relationship between rank and student-faculty interactions.