Several University of Wisconsin graduate school programs rank among the best in the nation according to the U.S. News and World Report 2011 edition in rankings of graduate programs published April 15.

The UW School of Education was ranked ninth out of 278 programs nationally, and it was the highest ranked graduate school program at UW.

The report not only looked at graduate schools, but also looked at specialties of study within the school. The School of Education had seven of its specialties ranked in the top three in the nation.

“No other school of education in the nation has seven programs ranked in the top three. None. It has been true year after year,” UW School of Education Dean Julie Underwood said.

The curriculum and instruction program at UW was ranked first in the nation, a UW statement said

The School of Engineering also ranked highly, tying for 15th in the nation out of 198 programs, with its nuclear engineering program ranked second in the nation as a specialty.

UW School of Engineering Dean Paul Peercy said the strength of the individual graduate programs lies in the strength of the whole university.

“We’re part of a great research university. Engineering really plays a big role in helping science meet the needs of society,” Peercy said.

Both Underwood and Peercy attributed the high ranking to high-quality faculty and students.

With the restructuring of the graduate school still being discussed in the Faculty Senate, Dean of Graduate Education Judith Kornblatt said it is hard to tell for certain if the new structure would affect future results.

However, she said the overall success of the program would depend on keeping graduate education and research at the forefront equally. It would be a disservice to the graduate school as a whole to put too much emphasis on research without an equal emphasis on graduate education.

“It is extremely important that whoever is in the position of dean of the graduate school be committed to graduate education,” Kornblatt said.

U.S. News and World Report Director of Data Research Bob Morse was in charge of developing the methodology of the rankings.

He said there were different factors for each discipline, and each of these factors had different weight placed on them to determine the score for each graduate program.

Kornblatt said the rankings are “feel good,” but not conducted in the most scientific manner.

“All rankings are to a certain extent subjective. We don’t put all of our eggs into that basket and assign them that much credibility. There are other ways of assessing programs we look at carefully,” Kornblatt said.

She said the methodology relies mainly on peer reporting. Those who conduct the study will ask specialists in the field of academia being ranked to give information on the best programs in the country. Because of this, some of the information used in the study may be old.

U.S. News and World Report did not have ranking categories for all the graduate programs offered at UW.