Institutional Concentration of Leisure Research: A Follow-up to and Extension of Jackson (2004) (Report‪)‬

Although measuring and ranking universities first began over a century ago (Massengale, 1987), doing so has become increasingly common in this century. In our own broadly defined discipline, for example, Thomas and Reeve (2006) ranked U.S. kinesiology and physical education programs; Jackson (2004) ranked U.S. and Canadian recreation and leisure studies programs; and Severt, Teson, Bottorff, and Carpenter (2009) ranked hospitality and tourism programs worldwide. Massengale (1987) held that rankings have long played a major role in higher education because "they serve as a measure of prestige, and prestige in higher education is very important" (p. 97). O'Meara (2007) posited that the pursuit of prestige--or what she called striving--has become increasingly rampant as the result of various economic, political, historical, ecological, and sociological factors.