• Joel Brown

    Staff Writer

    Portrait of Joel Brown. An older white man with greying brown hair, beard, and mustache and wearing glasses, white collared shirt, and navy blue blazer, smiles and poses in front of a dark grey background.

    Joel Brown is a staff writer at BU Today and Bostonia magazine. He’s written more than 700 stories for the Boston Globe and has also written for the Boston Herald and the Greenfield Recorder. Profile

Comments & Discussion

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There are 3 comments on U.S. News Lists BU among Most Innovative Universities

  1. Congratulations are in order.
    The next step is innovations in teaching practices (not just programs).
    If only there was ranking on this parameter, too.

  2. It is disturbing to see how time and again BU is fixated on US News Rankings, even as they do a disservice to BU with their controversial rating methodologies and show them down repeatedly. Despite all the exciting developments at BU over the last year, that ratings outfit dropped the most important overall ranking by 5 places. If anything the ranking should have gone up. So there is a disconnect between their methodology and ground realities.

    On the other hand Wall Street Journal/Times higher seems to have identified the positive trends reflecting with their ranking of BU going up by 5 or 6 places. Something like 36, and this is on their single consolidated rankings of both universities and colleges (unlike USNWR which does both separately). But it seems BU hardly cares, with just a brief mention towards the end.

    Why can’t BU learn from a fine institution like USC, which for the past few years has ignored USNWR rankings, but drawing the attention of the world to their glowing ratings and reviews by the likes of WSJ/Times higher and others?

    The ratings of USNWR have long been controversial and have been subject of harsh criticism by leaders in academia and research, such as former dean of Yale, and by another one of the longest seated deans of an internationally renowned (US based) medical institution. (To conform to the “guidelines” here I am not revealing their names nor sharing the links to their long write ups and opinions). Sadly and ironically the same criticisms regarding their methodology are being portrayed here as though some kind of a great service being rendered by USNWR.

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