Later this week, U.S. News & World Report will release its 2011 College Rankings and University of Missouri-St. Louis’ Criminology and Criminal Justice doctoral degree program has been named the fourth-best in the nation. This marks another milestone for UM-St. Louis, after its international business program was given high rankings by the publication last year.
Success is nothing new for this program.
The graduate program was ranked fourth in the country in 2009 as well and has seen its undergrad enrollment increase at a much greater rate than the UM-St. Louis average the last several years.
Finn Esbensen, the department’s chairperson, says that the program’s success comes from the low student-to-faculty ratio as well as a lack of a “weak link” in the faculty itself.
“We have faculty early in their careers that are very productive and on their way to becoming top scholars as well as older faculty recognized nationally and internationally,” Esbensen says.
The doctoral program has 15 professors, all of whom teach undergrad courses as well—a selling point for incoming freshmen.
Esbensen says that his colleagues from around the world assume that UM-St. Louis is a major research university and the flagship college of the state based on the strength of its Criminology and Criminal Justice program.
Esbensen admits he has to “cheerlead” for the department but the international name recognition is no joke.
Hyon Namgung, a second year doctoral student, wanted to study criminology here because he heard it was one of the best in America. Namgung is from South Korea where he served as a police officer for 10 years before receiving his masters in Public Administration and Public Policy from University of Exeter in England.
The faculty members also have over 18 published titles on various topics related to criminology and criminal justice with more to come this year.
Many are written with the non-academic in mind, including “Street Justice: Retaliation in the Criminal World,” by Richard Wright, currently available in hardback.
Only the programs at the University of Maryland in College Park, State University of New York at Albany and University of Cincinnati ranked higher than UM-St. Louis’ Criminology and Criminal Justice doctoral program. With approximately 25 PhD students and 40 currently enrolled in the master’s program, UM-St. Louis is smaller than all the other programs in US News and World Report’s top five.
All this recognition and acclaim is not without it downsides.
The program’s strength and notoriety give it a strong corporate rating, meaning other universities seeking to establish their Criminology or Criminal Justice programs are always trying to hire faculty away from UM-St. Louis.
The department has lost four professors in the last four years to other institutions such as Florida State and Arizona State.
Even though UM-St. Louis’ Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice has done a lot to elevate the status of the university as whole, some within the program feel the university could do more to show its gratitude.
“We need to have more support from the administration in terms of faculty positions,” Esbensen says. “We constantly need the university to recognize the contributions of our department to the university and need continued support in order to keep up that level of contribution.”