Temple University will pay a civil fine of $700,000 to the U.S. Education Department for knowingly submitting false data to the U.S. News and World Report in an effort to inflate the rankings of its Fox School of Business’ online MBA program.
According to the settlement released by the Education Department, Temple’s Fox School of Business then advertised those artificial rankings “thousands of times” through various mediums, including social media, billboards, television and radio.
As part of the settlement, the university admitted no liability or wrongdoing.
“We are grateful to have reached the conclusion of this matter with the US Department of Education,” Temple’s associate vice president for strategic marketing and communications, Ray Betzner wrote in an email to Diverse. “Throughout the process, Temple was entirely transparent and took swift actions to protect the interests of our students, donors, and the university.”
The scandal first came to light in January 2018 when U.S. News announced it would move Temple from its Best Online MBA Programs list to an “unranked” category after Temple informed the publication that only 19.6% of new student entrants had submitted GMAT scores, rather than the 100% the school had originally reported. Prior to that announcement, Temple had held the no. 1 spot on the rankings list for four consecutive years.
After notifying U.S. News of the false data submission, Temple hired an outside law firm, Jones Day, to conduct an in-depth investigation into the situation at Fox. Over the course of six months, the law firm reviewed 15,000 documents and emails and interviewed nearly two dozen Fox faculty and staff.
