In the 2003 report, the UNC School of Law fell from 23rd to 31st while Kenan-Flagler Business School's ranking rose from 18th to 17th in the nation. The School of Education fell from 18th to 24th in the nation, and the School of Medicine rose from 24th to 22nd in research and remained 6th for primary care.
UNC School of Law Dean Gene Nichol expressed in a statement his disappointment in the rankings but pointed out the school's consistently high peer approval. "The survey indicates that the nation's lawyers, judges, deans and professors continue to regard the UNC School of Law as one of the top 20 in the country," he wrote. "Almost all people who know about Carolina's law school believe we are making real progress."
UNC Provost Robert Shelton said one of the primary causes that played into the law school's decline in rank is the decade-long trend of budget cuts that the school has experienced.
"One of the concerns we have overall is that year after year we take budget cuts, and our dollars per student will decline," he said. "But I think in areas where we have direct (budgetary) control, the numbers are going in the right direction."
Shelton said he thinks that, in general, rankings have a less significant effect on prospective graduate students and faculty members than on undergraduate students. "Rankings are a more critical factor for undergraduates than for graduate students and for graduate students than professors," Shelton said.
He said his primary concern is with the long-term trends, not one-year changes.
"I don't typically see any significant correlation between the (ranking) changes from one year to the next in terms of the number or quality of the applications our programs receive," Shelton said. "These rankings are insensitive because there's a longtime delay between the time we make changes and the time they actually make an impact."
Shelton said that he is satisfied with the rankings of UNC's graduate programs and that he is hopeful that the rankings which fell this year will climb in the future.
Jim Dean, the associate dean of the masters in business administration program at the business school, said he thinks the school's rise in the rankings is well-deserved. "We've experienced a rise in all three of the major rankings," Dean said. "This isn't just a statistical fluke."
