ASU ranks 5th in political science research expenditures in consecutive years

Every year the National Science Foundation (NSF) conducts its Higher Education Research and Development Survey (HERD). HERD is the primary source of information on research and development expenditures at U.S. colleges and universities. 

The School of Politics and Global Studies is proud to announce that, for the second year in a row, Arizona State University's political science research expenditures ranked fifth out of 480 schools in the most recent HERD survey (FY2016). ASU’s ranking in the HERD results was higher than notable schools such as Yale, University of Maryland, Stanford and Duke. See the university's overall results here.

Although ASU’s ranking remained at fifth this year, political science and government research expenditures saw an approximate 7 percent increase from 2015 to 2016. ASU’s expenditures for the social sciences as a whole, moved from fifth to fourth this year.

“The faculty within the school are doing a fantastic job of advancing research that links theory with real-world issues,” School of Politics and Global Studies Director Cameron Thies said. “I am glad to see the innovative work that they are doing is being recognized by a variety of funding agencies.”

Professors Reed Wood and Thorin Wright received NSF funding to collect data on human-rights abuses around the world. Their effort collects information at the sub-national level, to understand why certain places within countries have better human-rights practices than others. Through this funding, they were able to hire a post-doctoral fellow, Rebecca Cordell from the University of Essex, to join the School of Politics and Global Studies and help develop the project.