Temple’s Fox School ‘misreported’ data on 6 other programs

After the ouster of Fox School of Business dean Moshe Porat over the “intentional misreporting” of rankings data on its Online MBA program, Temple University kept digging.

Following an internal review of  rankings data submissions, the North Philly university found similar misreporting for six other programs: its Executive MBA, Global MBA, Part-Time MBA, Master of Science in Human Resource Management and Master of Science in Digital Innovation in Marketing and the Online Bachelor of Business Administration.

“These programs all had issues related to the reporting of one or more metrics, including the number of new entrants providing GRE/GMAT scores, student indebtedness and applicants’ undergraduate GPAs,” Temple President Richard Englert and Provost JoAnne Epps said in an email sent to the Temple community on Wednesday. “As a result, we have reported to U.S. News that we cannot verify data related to these programs, and we are not participating in or submitting business school surveys at this time.”

For the Online Bachelor of Business Administration, the university also found misreporting related to student indebtedness, a stat also misreported for the now controversial Online MBA.

“We want all the members of the university community to know that, with respect to the misreporting of information at the Fox School, you had a right to expect this information would be accurate and honest,” the official emailed statement said. “We deeply regret that this did not happen. We will do more than own this problem. We will fix it.”

Earlier this year, before Temple had announced the findings of a months-long probe by law firm Jones Day, the U.S. Department of Education had begun an investigation into the rankings scandal, according to a three-page letter obtained by the Philadelphia Inquirer dated May 24.

The misreporting first came to light in January, when Temple itself announced it had been delisted from U.S. News & Report’s ranking after a “data error” was discovered by Temple staff. This year would have been the fourth straight year that the Online MBA program came in as first in the country.

In addition to the department’s probe, the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s office is also looking into matters, through its Bureau of Consumer Protection division.

“Temple is in contact with a number of agencies that have an interest in this matter,” the email said. “We are updating them as new information develops. We continue to diligently pursue the review of rankings data and will share additional updates.”

What about Temple’s own Best Colleges ranking, which for 2018 came in at No. 115? U.S. News asked Temple to verify the data for its 2018 and 2019 submissions. After a review, Temple sent back the data verifying its information and making only three corrections: “One inadvertent transposition and two typographical errors.”