Architecture school ratings historical comparison: 2005 to 2009

The Good Oil

Every two years we rank all the accredited architecture schools in the English-speaking world as research institutions: the best and the worst, top to bottom. Read about it here. We supply this information freely (eat your heart out Design Intelligence). When the next survey starts we amalgamate the old pages into a single report.

2005 to 2009: what changed

The table below uses the data from our 2005 and 2009 survey, omitting our 2007 survey. It ranks each school by the percentage of its staff {faculty} in the top quartile (top 25%) on our research scores. In a perfectly mediocre school, of course, 25% of its staff will be in the top quartile.

Don't get too excited by the changes. Many of the apparent movements are caused by our obtaining better data, and especially by our obtaining better information from the schools' websites (as we discuss below). We are completely dependent on these: if the schools lie (as they often do), then our data is defective.

Deceptive increases: UCLA and the Royal College of Art

Two examples of changes arising solely because of better information are the school of architecture at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and the Royal College of Art (RCA). In the table below they seem to have massively improved their rankings.

Nup. All they did was provide better information on their websites. In 2005 both UCLA and the RCA listed everyone and her dog as a full-blooded academic. As a result, we included a lot of duds in our counts. In 2009, both had become more discriminating: the duds were not listed.

Comparisons 2005 to 2009

Nation	University	% in top quartile–2005	% in top quartile–2009
UK	Royal College of Art	25	100
USA	University of California, Los Angeles	46	87
USA	Princeton University	67	83
USA	Columbia University	56	80
USA	Cooper Union, The	50	75
USA	University of Pennsylvania	61	68
UK	University of Bath	75	67
UK	University of Cambridge	71	64
USA	University of California, Berkeley	41	63
USA	Yale University	75	62
Can	McGill University	80	60
Aus	University of Melbourne	46	60
USA	Harvard University	55	58
Aus	University of Queensland	73	57
USA	Rice University	50	56
Aus	University of Tasmania	44	56
UK	University of Sheffield	33	52
USA	Massachusetts Institute of Technology	43	51
Can	University of Waterloo	39	50
UK	Cardiff University	38	48
USA	University of Notre Dame	50	47
Aus	University of Newcastle	50	44
UK	University College London	36	44
Aus	RMIT University	47	43
Aus	University of New South Wales	37	43
UK	University of Greenwich	30	42
NZ	University of Auckland	32	40
Eire	University College Dublin	40	40
USA	Ohio State University	13	40
USA	Pratt Institute	27	40
UK	University of Liverpool	35	39
USA	University of Michigan	27	38
USA	Georgia Institute of Technology	35	38
Aus	University of Adelaide	11	38
USA	Tulane University	–	38
NZ	Victoria University of Wellington	35	38
Can	University of British Columbia	31	36
Can	University of Calgary	13	36
USA	California College of the Arts	22	36
UK	Oxford Brookes University	26	35
USA	University at Buffalo, SUNY	35	35
UK	University of Newcastle upon Tyne	38	35
USA	University of Washington	29	34
Aus	University of Canberra	–	33
RSA	University of Cape Town	50	33
Can	Dalhousie University	35	33
USA	University of Texas at Austin	28	32
USA	New Jersey Institute of Technology	40	32
UK	University of the West of England	30	32
USA	University of Virginia	39	31
USA	University of Southern California	33	31
USA	University of Kansas	24	31
Aus	University of Western Australia	36	30
USA	Miami University	25	30
UK	Glasgow School of Art	17	30
Aus	University of Technology, Sydney	23	29
Aus	University of Sydney	31	28
USA	University of Houston	14	28
USA	Carnegie Mellon University	12	28
USA	Washington University in St Louis	30	28
USA	University of Texas at San Antonio	13	28
UK	University of Westminster	44	28
UK	Queen's University of Belfast	31	27
USA	Northeastern University	50	27
USA	University of Maryland	44	27
USA	Syracuse University	31	27
USA	University of Utah	10	27
USA	University of Colorado	–	26
Aus	Monash University	–	25
USA	Clemson University	12	25
UK	London Metropolitan University	–	24
Aus	University of South Australia	12	24
UK	Kingston University	–	24
USA	City College of New York, CUNY	32	24
Can	University of Toronto	56	23
USA	University of Wisconsin--Milwaukee	38	23
USA	University of Miami	35	23
USA	Cornell University	24	23
USA	Woodbury University	29	22
UK	Liverpool John Moores University	22	22
USA	University of Massachusetts Amherst	33	21
UK	University of Strathclyde	25	21
Can	Carleton University	0	21
USA	University of Minnesota	28	21
USA	North Carolina State University	12	21
USA	University of Illinois at Chicago	35	21
USA	University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign	34	21
RSA	University of the Witwatersrand	27	20
USA	Morgan State University	17	20
USA	Kansas State University	11	20
USA	Iowa State University	15	19
USA	Pennsylvania State University	13	19
USA	University of Hawaii at Manoa	5	19
USA	Florida International University	13	19
USA	California State Polytechnic University, Pomona	11	19
Can	University of Manitoba	20	18
USA	Rhode Island School of Design	21	18
USA	Catholic University of America	13	17
USA	Drexel University	0	17
USA	Texas A&M University	24	16
USA	University of Oregon	21	16
USA	University of Tennessee, Knoxville	10	16
UK	London South Bank University	25	16
UK	University of Nottingham	17	16
NZ	Unitec	14	15
UK	Manchester School of Architecture	7	15
UK	Sheffield Hallam University	–	15
USA	Arizona State University	38	15
USA	Kent State University	16	15
UK	Northumbria University	–	14
USA	Ball State University	9	14
USA	Roger Williams University	15	13
Aus	Queensland University of Technology	36	13
UK	University College for the Creative Arts	–	13
UK	Robert Gordon University	16	13
USA	Judson University	0	13
USA	Norwich University	17	13
USA	University of New Mexico	23	12
USA	Texas Tech University	17	12
USA	Mississippi State University	6	12
USA	University of Arkansas	7	12
RSA	University of KwaZulu Natal	25	11
USA	Andrews University	0	11
USA	University of Florida	21	11
USA	University of Cincinnati	24	11
USA	University of Kentucky	11	10
USA	Washington State University	0	10
RSA	University of Pretoria	–	9
Aus	Deakin University	0	9
UK	University of Kent	–	9
USA	Wentworth Institute of Technology	6	9
USA	California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo	6	8
USA	Virginia Tech	18	8
UK	University of Ulster	–	8
UK	University of Lincoln	11	7
USA	Temple University	11	7
UK	Leeds Metropolitan University	30	7
USA	Louisiana Tech University	0	7
USA	University of Oklahoma	14	7
Singapore	National University of Singapore	13	7
UK	University of Portsmouth	–	6
USA	University of Idaho	0	6
USA	North Dakota State university	0	6
USA	University of North Carolina - Charlotte	–	5
USA	University of Texas at Arlington	18	5
USA	Lawrence Technological University	7	5
USA	Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute	22	4
HK	University of Hong Kong	0	4
USA	New York Institute of Technology	10	4
USA	Illinois Institute of Technology	18	4
UK	Nottingham Trent University	–	0
USA	University of Arizona	–	0
USA	University of Nevada, Las Vegas	–	0
RSA	University of the Free State	0	0
USA	Louisiana State University	16	0
USA	Howard University	0	0
USA	Florida A&M University	4	0
USA	Drury University	–	0
RSA	Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University	–	0
USA	Southern Polytechnic State University	–	0
USA	Tuskegee University	–	0
USA	Southern University and A&M College	11	0
USA	University of Louisiana at Lafayette	11	0
USA	Oklahoma State University	8	0
USA	Auburn University	7	0
USA	Florida Atlantic University	0	0
USA	Hampton University	0	0
USA	Montana State University	0	0
USA	NewSchool of Architecture and Design	0	0
USA	Philadelphia University	0	0
USA	Prairie View A&M University	0	0
USA	University of Detroit Mercy	0	0
USA	University of Nebraska - Lincoln	0	0
UK	Architectural Association	28	–
UK	Edinburgh College of Art	64	–
UK	University of Edinburgh	59	–
UK	University of Dundee	18	–
UK	University of Plymouth	27	–
Aus	Curtin University of Technology	14	–
USA	University of Arizona	6	–
RSA	Tshwane University of Technology	0	–
UK	Birmingham City University	25	–
RSA	Durban University of Technology	11	–
USA	University of Hartford	0	–
Data from our 2005 and 2009 research rankings exercise. Columns to the right list the percentage of staff from each school who fall into our top quartile on our research rankings. A dash (–) denotes that we were unable to obtain data satisfying our criteria.