How to Rank a College President?

Higher education is awash with rankings, proclaiming the best universities, college dorms and even campus food. Now a new ranking aims to measure the effectiveness of college presidents. Launched by the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank, the rankings score presidents based on how much they supported student success, increased access and improved affordability. The study, which used federal data to measure graduation rates, socioeconomic diversity of the student body and tuition costs, ranked 446 college presidents who served at about 200 U.S. institutions between 2000 and 2023.

Like all rankings in the education sphere, these have generated widespread skepticism, not only about the study’s methodology but also about whether college presidents can actually be ranked on a narrow set of metrics.