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University Research Quandary: Funding Triples but Ranking Slips
By Fran Rensbarger
Despite steady growth in research funding, George Mason continues to lose
footing in the national rankings of research universities. Mason’s research
dollars have grown from $18 million to $52 million in the past decade, but other
universities have increased their funding more. Also, Mason is hurt by the fact
that the National Science Foundation (NSF), which compiles the national rankings,
does not count research done by the Law School or the School of Management.
“The competition in our league is very vigorous,” says Christopher
Hill, vice provost for research. “We’re late to the party, and we’re
very small.”
A recent report by the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV),
however, shows that George Mason is not unique in this regard in the state. “Condition
of Research at Virginia Colleges and Universities” calls attention to the
fact that, in the area of advancing research, colleges and universities in the
commonwealth have fallen below many of their peer institutions throughout the
country. Only the University of Virginia and Virginia Tech rank in the top 100
in the nation for research spending, the report says. The SCHEV report was largely
based on NSF rankings.
George Mason is ranked 173rd nationally for fiscal year 2001—a slip
backward from its past ranking around 164, Hill says. During the same time, Mason
has increased research spending by 14 to 17 percent annually for the past five
years.
“It is a very tough, competitive world out there. For our size, and
more important, our ‘character,’ being number 173 is not a good thing.
But, the last time I looked, even tripling our spending would only move us up
into the 125 zone. Without a medical school or a land grant status, as a public
university we are unlikely to move above that.
“A few years ago, I compared us with other public, non-medical, non-land-grant
universities with engineering schools. Among them, we ranked around number 13
in research money. And, unless we find a magic way to become clones of Georgia
Tech or the University of Texas at Austin, which rank number 1 or 2 by a very
big margin among this group, we are unlikely to more than double our funding from
its current level of $52 million.”
Within Virginia, however, George Mason is sixth highest in research expenditures,
says Hill.
For fiscal year 2000, about half of all research performed on George Mason’s
three campuses came from five academic units: the School of Computational Sciences,
the School of Information Technology and Engineering, the School of Public Policy,
the College of Arts and Sciences, and the Graduate School of Education.
The university is making considerable effort to grow its research activity,
says Hill. A number of units not among the top five have worked to increase their
research funding from outside the university. “We’re advancing on
research on 20 or 30 fronts,” he says. He cited the School of Management,
the College of Nursing and Health Science, and the Krasnow Institute for Advanced
Study, as well as new projects within the leading research centers on the campuses.
Research money comes largely from government and private industry. Chief among
government sources are NSF; the Pentagon, with biodefense; the National Aeronautics
and Space Administration; and National Institutes of Health, which is a small
but growing source of funds for Mason. Private industry is investing in bioinformatics
and biomedical genomics, Hill points out, and Virginia is poised for growth in
biotechnology, especially in Prince William County, with George Mason leading
the way. Eli Lilly and Company, a leading pharmaceutical firm, has committed to
building a corporate center near the Prince William Campus and is using university
space until its office is ready.
2001 New and Existing Awards by Academic Unit
Unit |
No. of Awards |
Value |
| College of Arts and Sciences |
162 |
$11,027,793 |
College of Nursing and Health Science |
20 |
1,751,350 |
Graduate School of Education |
63 |
5,437,409 |
Information Technology and Engineering |
143 |
11,499,964 |
Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution
|
12 |
690,099 |
School of Law |
9 |
818,228 |
School of Computational Sciences |
85 |
9,506,914 |
School of Management |
1 |
160,951 |
School of Public Policy |
83 |
6,589,853 |
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