Georgia State colleges move up on U.S. News & World Report 2010 rankings of graduate schools

Georgia State University’s College of Law advanced 12 spots in the U.S. News and World Report’s annual “America’s Best Graduate School” rankings for 2010, released Thursday. The College of Law moved into the 65th position overall in the nation– up from its 77th position last year.

The law school rankings are among a number of Georgia State colleges and programs that garnered rankings in this year’s report, which includes more than 1,500 graduate school programs nationwide and will be available on newsstands Monday, April 28.

"Georgia State University's graduate and professional school programs continue to make great strides in both reputation and excellence,” said Mark Becker, president of Georgia State University. “Our flexible part-time law and business programs were again recognized as among the best in the nation. While rankings are just one small measure of Georgia State's overall success, we are proud of our outstanding programs and the high level education they provide."

In addition to moving up 12 spots overall, the College of Law also made other strides. The college’s highly regarded Health Law program, which ranked 10th last year, moved up four spots in the current rankings and tied for No. 6 with Georgetown University and Seton Hall University.

This year’s edition of the annual rankings evaluated law school part-time programs for the first time, as well as modified the law school rankings methodology to include class admissions data for both full and part-time entering students. The part-time program of the College of Law has been ranked No. 15 in the country.

Georgia State College of Education’s graduate programs were ranked 54th out of more than 250 doctoral degree granting education programs, along with institutions like Drexel University, University of California – Riverside and University of Florida. The College of Education continues to rise in the rankings. It was ranked 58 in 2009 and 77 in 2008.

For the 14th consecutive year, the J. Mack Robinson College of Business Part-time MBA ranked in the Top 10. The part-time MBA program, which was ranked No. 7, is the only Atlanta area business school and the only school in the South to have a top-ten part-time program.In addition, Robinson’s Information Systems program ranked 10th overall.

Georgia State’s nursing program was ranked 72nd and the Andrew Young School was ranked 27th among 269 graduate programs in public affairs. Georgia State ranked high in six subfields of public affairs, up from four categories in 2005 and two in the 2002 rankings. Those subfields include: public finance and budgeting 5th; city management and urban policy 12th; information and technology management 12th; nonprofit management 13th; public policy analysis 18th; and public management administration 33rd.

The expanded online rankings are currently available at www.usnews.com.

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Graduate School an Increasingly Popular Choice at Georgia Southern University

When college graduates cross the stage this spring, they will face an increasingly competitive job market coupled with a struggling economy.

With that in mind, a growing number of students are looking at earning a graduate degree to give them a competitive edge in the job market. Georgia Southern University is seeing an increase in applications and accepted students to its Jack N. Averitt College of Graduate Studies, which offers 42 graduate degree programs.

“We have a wide array of degree programs to offer those looking to further their education,” said Dr. Tim Mack, Dean of the Jack N. Averitt College of Graduate Studies. “Our programs are high-quality; we know that because we have happy alumni.”

Mack said that having a graduate degree is becoming the new standard to be hired in a number of fields. He also stated that the average master’s degree recipient is paid $10,000 per year more than someone with only a bachelor’s degree, and the average doctoral degree recipient makes $20,000 per year more, according to the Council of Graduate Schools.

Even prior to the economic downturn, Georgia Southern was seeing a boom in graduate enrollment. Graduate student enrollment for the 2008-09 school year is up 14 percent from the previous year, compared to a three-percent rise nationally. The University’s number of graduate school applicants increased by 99 percent.

Georgia Southern University has become the choice of many graduate students by combining affordable tuition with a number of degree programs, according to Dr. John Diebolt, Associate Dean of Graduate Studies. A key reason for the enrollment increase has been Georgia Southern’s commitment to offering several programs online.

“We offer accessibility for those who are in the work force or are not close to campus, including full-time, part-time, and online options,” Diebolt said.

For more information about the Jack N. Averitt College of Graduate Studies, visit http://cogs.georgiasouthern.edu/.

“I would invite folks to take a look at what we have to offer,” Mack said. “We have faculty here at Georgia Southern that genuinely care about the students.”

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New Grant to Foster Integrity in Scholarship and Research

Research ethics and integrity will be the focus of a new program in development at Emory Graduate School. The program is one of five projects nationwide to receive a Project for Scholarly Integrity grant as part of a federal initiative to advance the scope and quality of graduate education in the ethical and responsible conduct of research.

The grants were awarded by the Council of Graduate Schools (CGS), with funding from the U.S. Office of Research Integrity. Amid heightened concerns about academic research misconduct, CGS’s Project for Scholarly Integrity seeks to better inform students, researchers and faculty about the ethical responsibilities and complexities of research in the 21st century.

One of the challenges in graduate education is to prepare students with the skills in ethical reasoning to deal with never-before-encountered situations says Lisa Tedesco, dean of the Graduate School and vice provost for academic affairs at Emory University.

“We have responsibilities to educate our doctoral students in the most up-to-date ways about the complexities in their research environment,” says Tedesco. “Our program will seek to harness the critical thinking and analysis skills that they use every day in their research to engage more deeply into research ethics and the responsible conduct of research.”

Tedesco says critical reflection will be a major component of the program, including learning various “approaches to asking challenging questions and getting people comfortable with those difficult conversations.”

Since evidence suggests that many students fear judgment in addressing ethical problems in research, the Graduate School's process-oriented program seeks to build contexts in which ethical dilemmas can be candidly discussed. The program will focus on a student’s development as a responsible researcher, supporting that development with three distinct goals:

• Program integration: Education in research ethics and integrity must be integrated into the curriculum of the student’s program.

• Skills of critical reflection: Students need time and space to practice thinking through complicated problems of professional integrity.

• Knowledge of research principles: Students should be acquainted with rules and principles established by the law, professional codes of ethics, and best practices in the discipline.

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