Moshe Porat, former dean of Temple University’s business school, was sentenced to more than a year in federal prison Friday on fraud charges for his role in a scheme to bolster the school’s M.B.A. rankings with falsified data. Porat also was fined $250,000. In November, a jury found the Porat, 75, guilty on charges of conspiring to deceive donors and applicants, distorting data on students’ work experiences and standardized tests to bring in tuition dollars and gifts, reports the Wall Street Journal. Temple’s online master-of-business-administration program was ranked No. 1 by U.S. News & World Report from 2015 to 2018. Such rankings are intensely competitive and influential in attracting applicants. Porat was ousted from school leadership in 2018 after investigators hired by the university found that employees submitted inflated student data to improve the school’s standings. The school was ordered to pay nearly $5.5 million in 2019 to settle a suit by current and former students who said they were misled about the school's quality and overcharged for degrees. In 2020, Temple was ordered to pay $700,000 in a settlement with the U.S. Education Department for using false data. Temple has said it has taken steps to improve data submitted to rankings organizations and agencies. In an effort to improve the school’s U.S. News rankings, Porat and two colleagues provided false information on how many students took the Graduate Management Admission Test and were enrolled part-time, as well as students’ work experiences, the Justice Department said.
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