"The indictment unsealed Friday charges Moshe Porat, 74, the former dean of Temple’s Fox School of Business and Management, in Philadelphia, with conspiracy and wire fraud for allegedly providing phony information to U.S. News & World Report between 2014 and 2018." - Patrick Thomas, The Wall Street Journal, April 16, 2021.
Two of Porat's subordinates at the time were also indicted. They were each charged with one count of conspiracy related to committing wire fraud.
Porat denies that allegations.
The cooked-up data about the online M.B.A. program focused on:
Number of students who had taken the Graduate Management Admission Test exam
Average work experience of students
Percentage of students enrolled part-time.
In 2018, the school notified U.S. News & World Report that the data had been manipulated. Soon after that, Porat was forced to leave. There were then federal and state investigations.
However, as the sayings go in law: The bell had been rung. The egg had been broken. Before this disclosure by the school, for four consecutive years that online program ranked number-one in the U.S. News & World Report ranking system.
Students who enrolled in that particular program because of that ranking then had to deal with the reality that their alma mater was involved in a front-page media scandal. That could reduce the brand value of their degree.
Anything to do with rankings in higher education is big news, That's because higher education is in essence BigBusiness.
When rankings slip for any professional school, be it business or law, those in leadership could lose their jobs. When rankings increase that usually results in higher quality students applying, brandname professors accepting positions, more research funding and larger donations from alumni.
The pressure is intense. Therefore, if it is proved that Porat and his team fudged the numbers or if they take a plea deal, that would be no surprise. Rankings represent a high-stakes game.
Ironically, the ranking game itself had gotten into a pickle this year. That happened with how U.S. News & World Report ranked law schools. As Law.com reports, three times it had t0 change the rankings of law schools. That threw shade on its own branding. It also opened the door wider on a discussion of the ranking game itself. Should it be allowed to continue?
Earlier several elite business schools refused to submit data to a ranking organization. They claimed that COVID had disrupted too much for the numbers to reflect any reality.
Reflection: Is the ranking process itself in play?
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