"That's what happened at Temple University, which was rocked by a rankings scandal in 2018, when it became clear that Moshe Porat, the dean of Temple's Richard J. Fox School of Business and Management, had knowingly provided false data to U.S. News for years in a successful effort to climb the rankings. Temple's online master of business administration soared to No. 1-until the scheme was exposed. U.S. News temporarily unranked the program, the U.S. Department of Education hit Temple with a $700,000 fine and Porat was convicted of fraud."
"Since then, Temple has worked hard to restore its reputation. In the aftermath of the scandal, officials imposed universitywide changes to how it handles facts and figures, establishing a Data Verification Unit within the Ethics and Compliance Office. Now any data produced by the university goes through a phalanx of dedicated fact-checkers, whether it's for a rankings evaluation or an admissions brochure."
"At first, it gave rise to "friction points," as university officials were required to go through new processes to verify data before it was disseminated, said Susan Smith, Temple's chief compliance officer. But now she believes the unit has won the trust of colleagues on campus who have bought in to more rigorous fact-checking measures."
College rankings season can prompt corrections and, occasionally, findings of outright fraud. In 2018, Moshe Porat, dean at Temple's Fox School of Business, knowingly provided false data that propelled the online MBA program to a No. 1 ranking until exposure. U.S. News temporarily unranked the program, the U.S. Department of Education fined Temple $700,000, and Porat was convicted of fraud. Temple created a Data Verification Unit in 2019 inside the Ethics and Compliance Office. New verification procedures initially caused friction but later gained trust as colleagues adopted rigorous fact-checking for all published data.
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