UT Austin Graduate Programs Receive Top Rankings from U.S. News

The University of Texas at Austin has the top ranked accounting and Latin American history programs in the nation and more than 50 other science, humanities and professional programs ranked in the top 25 nationally, according to U.S. News and World Report’s latest edition of “Best Graduate Schools,” released this morning.

The College of Education and College of Pharmacy are each the fourth best in the nation in their fields (with Education ranking first among public universities for the third year in a row and also number one in research expeditures). And the School of Information (iSchool) is sixth best in Library and Information Sciences.

Among other overall school rankings, the Cockrell School of Engineering is 11^th best (sixth among publics). The McCombs School of Business is 17^th best (fifth among publics). The Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs remains at No. 16, the Jackson School of Geosciences remains at No. 9 for Earth Sciences, and the School of Social Work remains at No. 7.

The University of Texas School of Law climbed one place in the rankings, to No. 15 in the nation. It is fourth best among public law schools, trailing only the University of Virginia, the University of Michigan and the University of California at Berkeley, all of which charge higher tuition to both in-state and out-of-state residents than UT Law.

“Graduate programs are critical to the research university ecosystem, and UT Austin’s graduate programs continue to be a source of strength, advancing the whole university,” said President Bill Powers, who also serves as vice chair of the Association of American Universities. “We should all be very proud of the progress UT Austin continues to make in graduate education.”

Using quantitative and qualitative measures, U.S. News 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 members and administrators. Some of those rankings are included in the latest report, which is considered the 2014 edition.

Since 2006, the number of UT Austin programs ranked in the top 5 has climbed from 9 to 16.

Other highlights for UT Austin this year include:

• Computer engineering moved up four places to No. 5.
• Mechanical engineering moved into the top 10.
• Digital librarianship moved up four places to No. 9.

The top rankings for graduate programs are consistent with other rankings for UT Austin, which has been named the 25^th best university in the world (Times Higher Education), the 46^th best overall university in the United States (U.S. News and World Report) and the 27^th best value among public colleges (Kiplinger).

UT Austin has maintained these levels of excellence despite cuts in state general revenue funding. Legislative leaders are now exploring ways to restore some of those cuts. The university also receives less money through state allocations and tuition than its national peers and is the second most efficient public research university in the U.S.

UT Austin graduate schools and programs ranked in the top 25 this year are listed below. These rankings are drawn from early figures released by U.S. News and could grow when fuller lists are published. Check utexas.edu/news for the most up-to-date lists: