University of Maryland Office of the President
Introduction
Executive Summary
Highlights of the Year
Measuring Up
UM's Performance
Competitive Environment
Closing the Gap
How Do We Stack Up
Recruiting and Retaining
Economic Impact
Funding Comparison
Making It
Quality and Access
The Path Forward
Going the Distance
Appendix A
Testimony PDF

   UM's Performance: Going Head-to-Head with the Competition

The legislation creating the University System of Maryland in 1988 and the subsequent Larson Task Force legislation in 1999 mandated the creation of a flagship university at College Park that was to achieve "national preeminence" and be competitive with the best universities in the country. The State provided support, and the University has delivered on our partnership.

Our mandate is to be among the best: By what standards should we measure our performance? In 1999, the Maryland Higher Education Commission, after consultation with the University System of Maryland, established a set of institutional peers against which those inside and outside could benchmark our progress in fulfilling the State's mandate. The five peers designated by MHEC are those that have historically set the standards for quality--quality of faculty, students, academic programs and research activities--by which public research universities across the country are measured. They are the University of California-Berkeley, University of California-Los Angeles, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

These universities all have missions similar to ours, and they share essential characteristics of first-rate public flagship research universities. They are members of the prestigious American Association of Universities and leaders in state university systems. They compete well against private universities in the amount of research funding they receive. They attract top faculty in nearly every discipline. Their academic programs are consistently ranked as among the highest, and their professional schools are in the top echelons in the listings in U.S. News & World Report. They are primary catalysts for the economic development of their states and regions in which they are located.

By constant reference to this set of peers, we hold the University accountable to its charge. The peers provide consistent measures for performance, ranking and funding by which we can mark our progress and gauge our needs. They offer standards for accomplishment that provide direction both on and off campus. Finally, they provide a clear, unequivocal, independently measured recognition of who we are, where we are, and where we are going.

When these institutions were selected as our peers in 1999, my confidence in the University's enormous potential was so strong I made two predictions. My first prediction was that given appropriate federal and state support, the University would "reduce the gap between our institution's performance and that of its peers in five years." This document will measure how close the institution is to fulfilling my prediction, achieving its mandate, and providing the quality university the State of Maryland must have for its future.



Office of the President, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742