"Productivity" of Undergraduate Institutions: New analyses show that a college's output of doctors of philosophy depends largely on its input of students.
A new method for evaluating the "Ph.D. productivity" of undergraduate institutions was applied to a sample of 265 institutions. It was found that a college's actual Ph.D. output can be predicted relatively accurately from an "expected" output based on the sex, major fields, and intelligence level of its students. Public institutions were found to be significantly overproductive, and eastern men's colleges and universities were found to be significantly underproductive. Previous findings indicating that the faculty had a causative effect on productivity were not confirmed. These results suggest that Ph.D. productivity may not be a sensitive measure of the effectiveness of undergraduate institutions.
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