“It’s gratifying to receive independent validation of the success of our young institution,” said UT Dallas President David E. Daniel.
The University of Texas at Dallas has been ranked 29th out of 100 schools named to a new Times Higher Education magazine list of the world’s most outstanding young universities.
The 100 Under 50 list, published Thursday, selects the best universities that have been in existence for less than half a century. Nine schools in the U.S. made the list. UT Dallas was the highest-ranked in Texas.
“This is very nice news and should be viewed as a tribute to our founders and the many friends through the years who have supported our development, and to alumni, students, faculty and staff who have given so much and continue to invest in UT Dallas,” said University of Texas at Dallas President David E. Daniel. “It’s gratifying to receive independent validation of the success of our young institution.”
In developing the list, Times Higher Education sought to move away from more subjective indicators of excellence, such as an institution’s heritage or legacy. Instead, the magazine used 13 performance indicators designed by Thomson Reuters, a worldwide business information service, to evaluate the core mission of global universities. The indicators include research productivity, teaching, international outlook, industry income and citations, or the number of times affiliated researchers’ work has been cited by other scholars.
To collect the data, the magazine relied on a survey of 17,500 academics and an analysis of 50 million scholarly citations.
“This report is not about the traditional elites,” according to Phil Baty, editor of the UK-based Times Higher Education rankings. “It is about a new breed of global universities – those that have managed to join the world’s top table in just decades, not centuries, and others showing great promise, institutions that could reach the top, given time.”
Researchers surveyed 17,500 academics and analyzed 50 million scholarly citations to assemble the Times Higher Education rankings. The magazine’s full rankings report is available online.
UT Dallas’s inclusion on the new list is the latest in a string of national and international accolades, which include high national rankings in the 2012 U.S. News and World Report evaluation of graduate programs. The University was also recently named again as one of the top 100 best values among the nation’s public colleges by Kiplinger’s Personal Finance magazine.
“Such recognition would not be possible without the support of the UT System Board of Regents and the Texas Legislature,” Daniel said. “We appreciate their support and this honor and remain committed to building the next top-flight research institution in Texas.”
UT Dallas confers a higher percentage of science, engineering and business degrees than all other Texas public doctoral-granting institutions.
Entering freshman classes at UT Dallas also have among the highest average SAT scores of any public university in Texas. UT Dallas’ research expenditures last year totaled more than $93 million.
Other U.S. universities to make the list were the University of California, Irvine; the University of California, Santa Cruz; the University of Illinois at Chicago; the University of Medicine & Dentistry of New Jersey, based in Newark; the University of Texas at San Antonio; George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia; the University of Maryland, Baltimore County; and Florida International University in Miami.