Yale and Harvard law schools withdraw from US News annual rankings over 'profoundly flawed' methodologies

Officials of Yale's and Harvard's law school have announced that they will nolonger be participating in US News and World Report's annual rankings of the top law schools in the world, saying its ‘methodologies are profoundly flawed’.

CBS News quoted anofficial from the Yale, Dean Heather K Gerken, saying in a blog post that the methodology adopted forthe rankinglist is "profoundly flawed". She said, "We have reached a point where the rankings process is undermining the core commitments of the legal profession," noting that the school"has taken the top spot every year" since the rankings began. "As a result, we will no longer participate."

Gerkensaid that the list discourages low-income students or public service aspiring students to pursue courses as it excludes loan-forgiveness programmes in student debts. The Public Service Programmes Loan Forgivenesswas introduced in 2007 for forgiving loans for American students who wish to work in public service jobs.

The officials further said that the rankings list discourages universities from admitting low-income background students. For example, one such measure is "reputation" or how the college deals with rival colleges. The critics argued that this has little to do with the college's ability to educate its students. Another instance critics found was that itreinforcesincome inequality, hence reducingdiversity among students.

Harvard's Dean John Manning in a mail sent to CBS News saidthat it will also be wilfully dropping out from the list, "because it has become impossible to reconcile our principles and commitments with the methodology and incentives the USNews rankings reflect."

Neither Yale nor Harvard will be harmed by withdrawing their names from the list, given their strong global positions,and successful,renowned alumni. Yale's alumni include former US President Bill Clinton and four of the US Supreme Court judges.Both also have a budget to help students from low-income backgrounds. Harvard's plan stands at$50 billion while that of Yale is around$41 billion.

The US News and World Report were earlier criticised after the University of Colombia submitted inaccurate data to bolster its ranking. Further, it said that it will not be providing any information for the list. Despite this decision, the university was able to secure the second rank, with Ivy League School's rank tumbling to 18.

(With inputs from agencies)

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