BREAKING: U.S. News Removes Fox Temple From Online MBA Ranking
In some surprising news coming out of Philadelphia yesterday, the Temple University Fox School of Business Online MBA program—which had been named the best online offering in the country by U.S. News & World Report for the past four years—has been officially removed from the entire ranking due to misreporting admissions information.
According to Robert Morse and Eric Brooks, “the business school significantly overstated the number of new entrants for its 2016-2017 entering class who submitted GMAT scores. The misreported data resulted in the school’s numerical rank being higher than it otherwise would have been in the overall Best Online MBA Programs rankings and the Best Online MBA Programs for Veterans rankings.”
For the ranking, Fox Temple had originally reported that a remarkable 100 percent of applicants submitted GMAT scores for the survey. However, the school eventually informed the publication that only 50 out of 255 applicants actually submitted GMAT scores; less than 20 percent of the class.
Because of the infraction, the Fox School of Business will be completely removed from the 2018 ranking effective immediately. However, it will be eligible for re-entry on the 2019 ranking.
As of 4 p.m. EST, Fox Temple was still advertising its placement in the ranking on its main website.
Earlier this afternoon, Temple released a statement regarding the change, which contained the following:
Once we discovered the error, we took the proactive approach to promptly self-report in order to correct a mistake. The data submitted overstated the number of incoming Fox Online MBA students who had provided GMAT and GRE scores as part of the enrollment process. It was our hope U.S. News & World Report would recalculate its rankings based upon the submission of revised data. However, we accept the U.S. News & World Report decision.
The Fox Online MBA program still embodies all of the qualities of the nation’s top program, regardless of the revised 2018 ranking. Our program has a long-standing reputation as one of the nation’s best online MBA programs.
We are doubling efforts to verify our data before it is submitted for rankings purposes, and we have every expectation that the Fox Online MBA program will return to its rightful place among the nation’s top programs of its kind in 2019 and beyond. Rankings are a byproduct of quality, and our focus will remain where it always has—on delivering high-quality programs and service to our students.
To ensure the integrity of the Fox School’s reported data and reporting, the University is hiring an outside, independent firm to review all of our school’s data reporting processes, including what happened in this instance, and to make appropriate recommendations. I have directed the entire Fox School to cooperate fully with this review.
Fox losing its spot at the top of the rankings is not unheard of. In 2012, George Washington University lost its spot in the U.S. News general university rankings. However, GWU, at the time, was ranked 51st overall. Temple, in this instance, is suffering a much greater penalty for submitting false information.
Stay tuned for more information on the story as it unfolds.
Online MBA vs. Traditional MBA
There’s no doubt that the online MBA is gaining in popularity. Even top-quality schools such as the Fox School of Business at Temple University and the Graziadio School of Business and Management at Pepperdine University offer online MBA programs. The question then arises, is an online MBA program worth it and how does it differ from a traditional classroom MBA? Continue reading…
Fox Introduces New Tech Support for Online Students and Faculty
The Online and Digital Learning team at the Fox School of Business has announced the introduction of Blackboard-based video tutorials. These tutorials were designed to aid the faculty at Fox with convenient technological support. Students will also have access to these video tutorials which, will ultimately help both students and staff to find the answers to the technological related questions in regards to their courses online. The Online and Digital Learning team created these some 40 videos over the course of nine months.
The videos available will cover topics ranging from how to set up courses, rubrics and assessments, to grading submitted assignments and beyond. The video tutorials are being introduced in conjunction with the launch of the new Fox Online & Digital Learning website, which is available to both students and staff. The Blackboard tutorials can be found under the Faculty & Student Resources tab.
