AUSTIN (KXAN) — A new report ranked the University of Texas at Austin as the top public university in Texas and seventh among public universities nationally. The U.S. News & World Report Best Colleges Rankings for 2026 also holds UT at No. 30 nationally overall among public and private universities.
“Our commitment to the people of Texas is to deliver an uncompromising standard of academic excellence,” UT President Jim Davis said in a Monday news release. “That excellence is driving the highest demand and student performance in our University’s history. I am grateful to our faculty and staff for their dedication to our students and their academic success.”
The World Report ranked 32 undergraduate programs No. 1 in the state, with 24 being ranked in the top 10 nationally.
Six of those programs, three each in the business and engineering schools, ranked in the top 5 nationally:
- Accounting, McCombs School of Business: No. 2
- Marketing, McCombs School of Business: No. 3
- Finance, McCombs School of Business: No. 5
- Petroleum Engineering, Cockrell School of Engineering: No. 2
- Chemical Engineering, Cockrell School of Engineering: No. 5
- Civil Engineering, Cockrell School of Engineering: No. 5
Here’s how both public and private universities in Texas were ranked:
- Rice University
- The University of Texas at Austin
- Texas A&M University
- Baylor University
- Southern Methodist University
Programs are ranked based on graduation and retention rates, class resources available to students and the number of graduates who entered the workforce with competitive salaries and manageable debt, according to the World Report’s website.
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