For further information, visit the Graduate School's NRC page.

The National Research Council report, containing both a rating and a ranking of 4,838 programs in 62 fields at 212 institutions, shows that in the dominant, core disciplines that are crucial to the overall strength of any institution of higher learning, our PhD programs are remarkably strong, vibrant, and successful.

Especially impressive, though, is the breadth of excellence that the NRC has found at Harvard. Ninety percent of our programs are in the highest tier of the NRC rankings, which are based on quantitative measures and faculty assessment. More than half of our programs are the very highest ranked in the country. This report from the National Research Council confirms that Harvard is home to the largest collection of exceptional graduate programs anywhere in the United States.

This collective excellence sustains a teaching and research environment that strongly supports collaboration and innovation across programs and in a wide variety of disciplines. No matter their particular field of interest, graduate students at Harvard benefit from the remarkable scholarly strengths present across all our programs, pursuing their research beyond traditional disciplinary and professional boundaries.

These ratings reflect the quality of our faculty and the talent and motivation of our students. We are extremely proud and appreciative of our overall performance in this comprehensive evaluation, which is likely to be considered useful by prospective students, faculty, government agencies, foundations, and donors — anyone who is investigating the character and nature of graduate education in America today.

Unlike many of the national rankings we so frequently see in the popular media, the NRC report is the result of a considered and serious process that engaged our faculty in the work of assessing their own strengths and ambitions, as well as evaluating peer programs.

And yet all rankings of higher education programs have limitations, and all should be met with a critical eye. Those eager to base decisions on the evaluations in this report must realize how quickly graduate education changes. Because of delays in releasing the report, the data it contains, which comes from the period 2001 through 2006, may in some instances be out of date. In the years since this data was collected, we have worked aggressively across the University to continue to enhance our programs.

The NRC report is a valuable reminder of the importance of graduate education in the United States and in our larger global society. The worth of this exercise lies in great part in the affirmation it provides to our collective mission: to expand knowledge, nurture innovation, and develop ever-richer approaches to understanding ourselves and the world around us.

Dean Allan M. Brandt
Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences

For further information, visit the Harvard GSAS NRC page.

Visit the NRC's Assessment of Research Doctoral Programs page to download assessments and data.

Media inquiries: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. , Harvard Public Affairs and Communications