The College of Education at The University of Texas at Austin, moved to the number 2 position among American schools of education, up from number 10, in the U.S. News and World Report 2012 Best Graduate Schools rankings. The Cockrell School of Engineering and the School of Law each increased their positions, to 8 and 14 respectively.
“Under the leadership of Dean Manuel Justiz, the College of Education has thrived,” said William Powers Jr., president of the university. “This ranking is confirmation of the university’s commitment to educating the next generation of teachers and leaders in Texas.”
“This is wonderful news for the College of Education,” said Manuel J. Justiz, College of Education dean, “and I’m so pleased that the hard work of our faculty, students and staff is getting recognition on such a large scale. I want to offer sincere thanks to all of the individuals in our college for their dedication and, of course, to the donors and alumni who so faithfully support our efforts.”
Using quantitative and qualitative measures, the magazine annually ranks graduate school programs in business, education, engineering and law. Certain other Ph.D. programs and specialty programs are ranked in alternate years based on ratings of academic experts, including faculty and administrators.
The College of Education, with the largest amount of funded research of any college of education in the country, tied with Harvard University. The Administration/Supervision program was ranked by education school deans as the 4th best in the nation, and Special Education was 5th.
Individual engineering programs in the Cockrell School ranked by deans as among the best in the country are Aerospace/Aeronautical/Astronautical at 10; Biomedical/Bioengineering at 16, Chemical at 6; Civil at 3; Computer at 10; Electrical/Electronic/Communications at 9; Environmental/Environmental Health at 4; Industrial/Manufacturing at 17; Materials at 19; and Mechanical at 11.
The Tax Law program in the School of Law is positioned at 10.
Other top programs at the university include the McCombs School of Business at 17, with Accounting at 1; Entrepreneurship at 7; Information Systems at 3; and the Part-time MBA at 7. The School of Nursing master’s program was ranked number 32.