After three consecutive years of reduced research and development spending, the University of Wisconsin-Madison can no longer count itself among the top five research universities in the country — a distinction it has held since 1972.
Data released by the National Science Foundation on Nov. 17 shows UW-Madison fell from No. 4 in the nation in 2014 to No. 6 in 2015 in research and development spending.
Coming in ahead of UW-Madison were Johns Hopkins University (No. 1), the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor (No. 2), University of Washington-Seattle (No. 3), University of California-San Francisco (No. 4) and University of California-San Diego (No. 5).
Each of those universities has increased their research and development spending by an average of $87.6 million over the past four years, while UW-Madison has cut its spending by more than $100 million.
Here’s the net change in spending for the top six research universities in the U.S. from 2012 to 2015:
- Johns Hopkins, +$199.5 million
- University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, +46.6 million
- University of Washington-Seattle, +71.6 million
- University of California-San Francisco, +92.9 million
- University of California-San Diego, +27.6 million
- University of Wisconsin-Madison, -$100.7 million
UW-Madison ranked No. 2 in 2006, 2007 and 2008; No. 3 in 2009, 2010 and 2012; and No. 4 in 2011, 2013 and 2014.
“UW-Madison has worked aggressively and, for the most part, successfully to retain faculty in the face of steep state budget cuts,” university representatives wrote in a statement released Tuesday. “However, the effort to keep top faculty has become more difficult as other states increase their contributions to public higher education and expand their faculty.”
UW-Madison vice chancellor for research and graduate education Marsha Mailick called university research a “highly competitive environment” and said “continued disinvestment by the state is having an impact on our ability to compete.”
A tweet from Gov. Scott Walker’s official Twitter account posted on Monday, four days after the NSF released its data, said: “We will put additional money into public schools, our technical colleges and the University of Wisconsin system in our budget.”
Spending from other schools in the University of Wisconsin system was also included in the data. University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee moved from No. 179 to No. 171 after boosting spending by about $3 million, UW-Steven’s Point dropped from No. 401 to No. 403 and UW-Lacrosse moved from No. 435 to No. 433. Marquette University increased its research and development spending by about $1 million from 2014 to 2015, but didn’t budge from its position at No. 246.
