U.S. News & World Report has moved Tulane University’s business school to the “unranked” section of its business-school listings after the school’s recent admission that it had inflated test scores and the number of completed applications to its full-time M.B.A. program for several years. Robert J. Morse, the magazine’s director of data research, made the announcement in a blog post on Thursday. The school had been ranked 43rd on the U.S. News list.
Tulane’s Freeman School of Business previously said that it had hired an independent law firm to examine apparent discrepancies that emerged as it prepared to submit data about its M.B.A. program last fall. The review confirmed that data had been misreported for the classes entering from the fall of 2007 through 2011. The school blamed the incident on a single employee who it said was no longer employed there.
Mr. Morse wrote that the school’s “unranked” designation will last until the 2014 edition of the magazine’s “Best Graduate Schools” rankings is published this spring, “and until the Freeman School confirms the accuracy of its next data submission.” U.S. News punished George Washington University in the same manner over a similar case of data inflation that came to light last fall, but Mr. Morse wrote that the magazine would continue to deal with each incident “on a case-by-case basis.”
In a message on the business school’s Web site, its dean, Ira Solomon, said he was “disappointed” by the magazine’s action but added that the school was already looking to the future. “We also remain fully committed to enhancing the academic programs at the Freeman School,” he said, “as well as assuring that those who recruit our students continue to know they are among the best.”