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“Why Some and Not Others?” The Determinants of the Quality and Prestige of Public Graduate Research Universities

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 January 2021

Kim Quaile Hill ,
K. Jurée Capers  and
Carla Flink
Kim Quaile Hill*
Affiliation:
Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA
K. Jurée Capers
Affiliation:
Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA, USA
Carla Flink
Affiliation:
Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA
*
Kim Quaile Hill, Texas A&M University, 4348 TAMU, College Station, TX 77843-4348, USA. Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

We offer the first systematic assessment of the factors thought to account for the quality and prestige of public research universities in the United States. We take account, too, of those potential causal factors identified in both contemporary and early descriptive research on these institutions. Our findings indicate that attributes of universities and their states from the first half of the twentieth century as well as some of their contemporary attributes are powerful predictors of their success in National Research Council peer evaluations of their research programs. The results provide a foundation for efforts to account systematically for the research achievements of these universities and evidence on state public policy influences on those research achievements.

Keywords

higher educationgraduate research universitiesresearch prestigestate public policy
Type
Research Article
Information
State Politics & Policy Quarterly , Volume 14 , Issue 1 , March 2014 , pp. 29 - 49
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2014

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