Placement Efficiency: an Alternative Ranking Metric for Graduate Schools

Abstract

Placement efficiency measures the number of tenured and tenure-track placements of Ph.D.-graduates per tenured and tenure-track faculty at a given Ph.D.-granting institution. We believe that the focus on tenured and tenure-track appointments provides both the most accurate control for the size of a department as well as the most appropriate operationalization of placement. We have chosen to utilize a data set that focuses solely on placement in Ph.D.-granting programs because we believe that this gives the clearest picture of competitive-advantage across these peer institutions. Our focus is on 3,709 tenured and tenure-track professors at 136 research-intensive universities that political scientists cite as their Ph.D.-granting alma mater. Our narrow selection is by design so as not to compare institutions with different missions because we are interested in performative variables, not proxies. Therefore, we consider this an intersectional study to determine the relative advantage of the upper echelons of political science education. We do, however, recognize that universities place students within the professoriate in national liberal arts colleges, regional universities, regional colleges, and community colleges.

Keywords: Critical University Studies, Political Science, Methodology, Higher Education, Placement Efficiency