The University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC) is among the Princeton Review's Top Entrepreneurial Colleges no longer.
For the first time in its 22-year history, the college ranking authority is stripping a school of its ranking for knowingly providing false data. As part of their 2014 rankings, the Princeton Review placed UMKC's business programs for graduate and undergraduate students among the nation's best in terms of entrepreneurialship.
According to the Associated Press, the Review's senior vice president Rob Franek said in a statement the development was "disappointing" since schools self-report data for the publication's entrepreneurial rankings.
"Schools earn a spot on our entrepreneurship ranking through school-reported data," he said. "Every school signs an affidavit to ensure their information is accurate. We take these affidavits and this news very seriously."
Leo E. Morton, UMKC's chancellor, said in his own statement that is not contesting the Review's actions, but said he still has "great confidence" in the data the school provided.
"Even one inaccurate data point is one too many, and our integrity is paramount," he said. "With that in mind, we have requested that The Princeton Review withdraw our rankings from 2011, 2012 and 2013, based on the inaccurate information provided for those years."
With an extensive history and readership, the Princeton Review has one of the most trusted annual college rankings. Rankings attract prospective students and therefore help the schools make money, so falsifying data is certainly frowned upon.
The UM system also recently released a report from an independent investigator probing the UMKC Bloch School of Management. The review came in response to Gov. Jay Nixon's request upon reading about potential inconsistencies. The review reportedly found false data, but none that could have altered the school's ranking.
"I am pleased to have the Bloch School's No. 1 ranking in innovation management research validated, but I take seriously the report's conclusions on the three areas of flawed data in the Princeton Review application," Morton said in a press release. "We have already implemented changes and will continue to seek ways to improve our data collection."
