The Long Upward Climb of Baylor PhD Programs

Larry Lyon

Vice Provost & Dean of the Graduate School

PhD programs are unique in the landscape of higher education.  No other degree requires as much faculty expertise, as much graduate student time, or as much university support.  It’s not surprising then that so few universities offer a PhD.  In fact, for most of Baylor’s existence, we were an undergraduate institution and the few graduate degrees we did offer were at the Master’s level.  Baylor’s first PhD program, in English, did not launch until 1951—106 years after our founding.  The growth in Baylor’s PhD programs was slow until the 1990s, when we added seven new programs.  During all this time, however, our aspirations and additions exceeded our resources.  From the 1950s through the 1990s, Baylor’s PhD programs were small and poorly funded.

The Evolution of PhD Programs at Baylor

In 1995, the National Research Council (NRC) published a national ranking of all research doctoral programs.  The rankings were based on the scholarly achievements of the faculty associated with each program.  Baylor had only five programs large enough to be included, and the highest ranked program was in the bottom 20%.  An enterprising Lariat reporter discovered the NRC report in 1999.  The headline stated that “PhD programs rank low:  Review cites lack of faculty research.”  One department chair acknowledged his program’s low ranking (145 out of 147) but argued that “it’s an honor to be ranked at all.”  The new graduate dean hopefully proclaimed that “while we have done a good job in undergraduate education, it is now time for Baylor to do an equally good job for selected graduate programs.”  I recall the graduate dean actually thinking that maybe we ought to shut down our PhD programs if this is the best we can do. 

Fortunately, better times were ahead.  2002 saw the launch of Baylor’s Vision 2012, which included significant funding for faculty research, graduate stipends, and new PhD programs.  It set in motion an increase in the quantity and quality of PhD programs that continues to this day.  Baylor currently has 34 PhD programs, almost 1,000 PhD students, and over $80M in annual research expenditures.

1995 was the last year the NRC assessed PhD programs.  In the decade following the final NRC ranking, Baylor made remarkable progress in the humanities and social sciences.  As a new replacement for the NRC list would show, however, our more expensive STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) fields still needed help. 

Today, a private organization, Academic Analytics (AcA), annually provides the same rankings as NRC with a similar methodology based on the publications, citations, grants, and awards of faculty in PhD programs.  In AcA’s first year, 2006, Baylor had 15 PhD programs large enough to be ranked, and 5 of those programs, all in the humanities and social sciences--Religion, English, Philosophy, Political Science, and Sociology (in that order)--were above the national average in scholarly productivity. 

The most recent AcA rankings are based on faculty scholarship data from 2022.  We now have 31 PhD programs large enough to be ranked, and 20 are among the top half in their discipline nationally.  That is the largest number of highly-ranked programs Baylor has ever had, exceeding last year’s record of 17.  The qualitative and quantitative improvements are dramatic, especially in STEM, with five STEM programs now ranked in the top half.  

The 1999 Lariat article accurately cited faculty research as a major hurdle to Baylor developing strong PhD programs.  The AcA data from 23 years later demonstrates the remarkable growth in our faculty scholarship in only one generation.  The graduate dean’s fears were unfounded; we could and did do better – much, much better.

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