University of Texas at Austin
Public university in Austin, Texas, US / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 52,384 students as of Fall 2022, it is also the largest institution in the system.[12]
Former names | The University of Texas (1881–1967)[1] |
---|---|
Motto | Disciplina Praesidium Civitatis (Latin) |
Motto in English | "Education is the Guardian of the State"[lower-alpha 1][2] |
Type | Public research university |
Established | September 15, 1883; 140 years ago (1883-09-15) |
Parent institution | University of Texas System |
Accreditation | SACS |
Academic affiliations | |
Endowment | $18.80 billion (2023) (UT Austin only)[3] $44.97 billion (2023) (system-wide)[4] |
President | Jay Hartzell[5] |
Provost | Sharon L. Wood |
Academic staff | 3,254 (Fall 2022)[6] |
Administrative staff | 11,645 (2015)[7] |
Students | 52,384 (Fall 2022)[8] |
Undergraduates | 42,444 (Fall 2023)[6] |
Postgraduates | 9,469 (Fall 2023)[6] |
Location | , , United States 30.285°N 97.735°W / 30.285; -97.735 |
Campus | Large city[9], 431 acres (1.74 km2) |
Newspaper | The Daily Texan |
Colors | Burnt orange and white[10] |
Nickname | Longhorns |
Sporting affiliations | NCAA Division I: |
Mascot | |
Website | utexas |
Founded in 1883, UT Austin is considered a Public Ivy. The university is a major center for academic research, with research expenditures totaling $679.8 million for fiscal year 2018.[13][14] It joined the Association of American Universities in 1929. The university houses seven museums and seventeen libraries, including the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library and the Blanton Museum of Art, and operates various auxiliary research facilities, such as the J. J. Pickle Research Campus and the McDonald Observatory.
Student-athletes compete as the Texas Longhorns. The Longhorns have won four NCAA Division I National Football Championships, six NCAA Division I National Baseball Championships, thirteen NCAA Division I National Men's Swimming and Diving Championships, and the school has claimed more titles in men's and women's sports than any other member in the Big 12.
As of November 2020,[update] 13 Nobel Prize winners, over 25 Pulitzer Prize winners, three Turing Award winners, two Fields Medal recipients, two Wolf Prize winners, and three Abel Prize winners have been affiliated with the school as alumni, faculty members, or researchers. The university has also been affiliated with three Primetime Emmy Award winners, and as of 2021, its students and alumni have earned a total of 155 Olympic medals.[15]
Establishment
The first mentioning of a public university in Texas can be traced to the 1827 constitution for the Mexican state of Coahuila y Tejas. Although Title 6, Article 217 of the Constitution promised to establish public education in the arts and sciences,[16] no action was taken by the Mexican government. After Texas obtained its independence from Mexico in 1836, the Texas Congress adopted the Constitution of the Republic, which, under Section 5 of its General Provisions, stated "It shall be the duty of Congress, as soon as circumstances will permit, to provide, by law, a general system of education."[17]
On April 18, 1838, "An Act to Establish the University of Texas" was referred to a special committee of the Texas Congress, but was not reported back for further action.[18] On January 26, 1839, the Texas Congress agreed to set aside fifty leagues of land—approximately 288,000 acres (117,000 ha)—towards the establishment of a publicly funded university.[19] In addition, 40 acres (16 ha) in the new capital of Austin were reserved and designated "College Hill".[1] (The term "Forty Acres" is colloquially used to refer to the university as a whole. The original 40 acres is the area from Guadalupe to Speedway and 21st Street to 24th Street.[20])
In 1845, Texas was annexed into the United States. The state's Constitution of 1845 failed to mention higher education.[21] On February 11, 1858, the Seventh Texas Legislature approved O.B. 102, an act to establish the University of Texas, which set aside $100,000 in United States bonds toward construction of the state's first publicly funded university[22] (the $100,000 was an allocation from the $10 million the state received pursuant to the Compromise of 1850 and Texas's relinquishing claims to lands outside its present boundaries). The legislature also designated land reserved for the encouragement of railroad construction toward the university's endowment. On January 31, 1860, the state legislature, wanting to avoid raising taxes, passed an act authorizing the money set aside for the University of Texas to be used for frontier defense in west Texas to protect settlers from the alleged attacks of Native peoples.[23]
Texas's secession from the Union and the American Civil War delayed repayment of the borrowed monies. At the end of the Civil War in 1865, the University of Texas's endowment was just over $16,000 in warrants[24] and nothing substantive had been done to organize the university's operations. This effort to establish a university was again mandated by Article 7, Section 10 of the Texas Constitution of 1876 which directed the legislature to "establish, organize and provide for the maintenance, support and direction of a university of the first class, to be located by a vote of the people of this State, and styled 'The University of Texas.'"[25]
Additionally, Article 7, Section 11 of the 1876 Constitution established the Permanent University Fund, a sovereign wealth fund managed by the Board of Regents of the University of Texas and dedicated to the maintenance of the university. Because some state legislators perceived an extravagance in the construction of academic buildings of other universities, Article 7, Section 14 of the Constitution expressly prohibited the legislature from using the state's general revenue to fund construction of university buildings. Funds for constructing university buildings had to come from the university's endowment or from private gifts to the university, but the university's operating expenses could come from the state's general revenues.
The 1876 Constitution also revoked the endowment of the railroad lands of the Act of 1858, but dedicated 1,000,000 acres (400,000 ha) of land, along with other property appropriated for the university, to the Permanent University Fund. This was greatly to the detriment of the university as the lands the Constitution of 1876 granted the university represented less than 5% of the value of the lands granted to the university under the Act of 1858 (the lands close to the railroads were quite valuable, while the lands granted the university were in far west Texas, distant from sources of transportation and water).[26] The more valuable lands reverted to the fund to support general education in the state (the Special School Fund).
On April 10, 1883, the legislature supplemented the Permanent University Fund with another 1,000,000 acres (400,000 ha) of land in west Texas granted to the Texas and Pacific Railroad but returned to the state as seemingly too worthless to even survey.[27] The legislature additionally appropriated $256,272.57 to repay the funds taken from the university in 1860 to pay for frontier defense and for transfers to the state's General Fund in 1861 and 1862.[28] The 1883 grant of land increased the land in the Permanent University Fund to almost 2.2 million acres. Under the Act of 1858, the university was entitled to just over 1,000 acres (400 ha) of land for every mile of railroad built in the state. Had the 1876 Constitution not revoked the original 1858 grant of land, by 1883, the university lands would have totaled 3.2 million acres;[29] the 1883 grant was thus to restore lands taken from the university by the 1876 Constitution, not an act of munificence.
On March 30, 1881, the legislature set forth the university's structure and organization and called for an election to establish its location.[30] By popular election on September 6, 1881,[31] Austin (with 30,913 votes) was chosen as the site. Galveston, having come second in the election (with 20,741 votes), was designated the location of the medical department (Houston was third with 12,586 votes).[32] On November 17, 1882, on the original "College Hill", an official ceremony commemorated the laying of the cornerstone of the Old Main building. University President Ashbel Smith, presiding over the ceremony, prophetically proclaimed "Texas holds embedded in its earth rocks and minerals which now lie idle because unknown, resources of incalculable industrial utility, of wealth and power. Smite the earth, smite the rocks with the rod of knowledge and fountains of unstinted wealth will gush forth."[33] The University of Texas officially opened its doors on September 15, 1883.[34]
Expansion and growth
In 1890, George Washington Brackenridge donated $18,000 for the construction of a three-story brick mess hall known as Brackenridge Hall (affectionately known as "B.Hall"), one of the university's most storied buildings and one that played an important place in university life until its demolition in 1952.[35]
The old Victorian-Gothic Main Building served as the central point of the campus's 40-acre (16 ha) site, and was used for nearly all purposes. But by the 1930s, discussions arose about the need for new library space, and the Main Building was razed in 1934, despite the objections of many students and faculty. The modern-day tower and Main Building were constructed in its place.
In 1910, George Washington Brackenridge again displayed his philanthropy, this time donating 500 acres (200 ha) on the Colorado River to the university. A vote by the regents to move the campus to the donated land was met with outrage, and the land has since been used only for auxiliary purposes such as graduate student housing. Part of the tract was sold in the late 1990s for luxury housing, and there are controversial proposals to sell the remainder of the tract. The Brackenridge Field Laboratory was established on 82 acres (33 ha) of this land in 1967.
In 1916, Gov. James E. Ferguson became involved in a serious quarrel with the University of Texas. The controversy grew out of the board of regents' refusal to remove certain faculty members whom the governor found objectionable. When Ferguson found he could not have his way, he vetoed practically the entire appropriation for the university. Without sufficient funding, the university would have been forced to close its doors. In the middle of the controversy, Ferguson's critics brought to light a number of irregularities on the part of the governor. Eventually, the Texas House of Representatives prepared 21 charges against Ferguson, and the Senate convicted him on 10 of them, including misapplication of public funds and receiving $156,000 from an unnamed source. The Texas Senate removed Ferguson as governor and declared him ineligible to hold office.[36]
In 1921, the legislature appropriated $1.35 million for the purchase of land next to the main campus. However, expansion was hampered by the restriction against using state revenues to fund construction of university buildings as set forth in Article 7, Section 14 of the Constitution. With the completion of Santa Rita No. 1 well[37] and the discovery of oil on university-owned lands in 1923, the university added significantly to its Permanent University Fund. The additional income from Permanent University Fund investments allowed for bond issues in 1931 and 1947, which allowed the legislature to address funding for the university along with the Agricultural and Mechanical College (now known as Texas A&M University). With sufficient funds to finance construction on both campuses, on April 8, 1931, the Forty Second Legislature passed H.B. 368.[38] which dedicated the Agricultural and Mechanical College a 1/3 interest in the Available University Fund,[39] the annual income from Permanent University Fund investments.
The University of Texas was inducted into the Association of American Universities in 1929.[40] During World War II, the University of Texas was one of 131 colleges and universities nationally that took part in the V-12 Navy College Training Program which offered students a path to a Navy commission.[41]
After Brown v. Board of Education in 1954, Houston, Texas, area teen Marion Ford had been accepted to become one of the first Black attendees. In an interview with a reporter he announced his desire to try-out for the famous Longhorn football team. The Ford Crisis would begin and all Black admissions at the time were rescinded until policy could be drawn up.[42]
In the fall of 1956, the first Black students entered the university's undergraduate class.[43] Black students were permitted to live in campus dorms, but were barred from campus cafeterias.[43] The University of Texas integrated its facilities and desegregated its dormitories in 1965.[44] UT, which had had an open admissions policy, adopted standardized testing for admissions in the mid-1950s, at least in part as a conscious strategy to minimize the number of Black undergraduates, given that they were no longer able to simply bar their entry after the Brown decision [45]
Following growth in enrollment after World War II, the university unveiled an ambitious master plan in 1960 designed for "10 years of growth" that was intended to "boost the University of Texas into the ranks of the top state universities in the nation."[46] In 1965, the Texas Legislature granted the university Board of Regents to use eminent domain to purchase additional properties surrounding the original 40 acres (160,000 m2). The university began buying parcels of land to the north, south, and east of the existing campus, particularly in the Blackland neighborhood to the east and the Brackenridge tract to the southeast, in hopes of using the land to relocate the university's intramural fields, baseball field, tennis courts, and parking lots.[46]
On March 6, 1967, the Sixtieth Texas Legislature changed the university's official name from "The University of Texas" to "The University of Texas at Austin" to reflect the growth of the University of Texas System.[47]
1966 shooting
On August 1, 1966, Texas student Charles Whitman barricaded the observation deck in the tower of the Main Building. Armed with multiple firearms, he killed 14 people on campus, 11 from the observation deck and below the clocks on the tower, and three more in the tower, as well as wounding two others inside the observation deck. The massacre ended when Whitman was shot and killed by police after they breached the tower.
After the Whitman event, the observation deck was closed until 1968 and then closed again in 1975 following a series of suicide jumps during the 1970s. In 1999, after installation of security fencing and other safety precautions, the tower observation deck reopened to the public. There is a turtle pond park near the tower dedicated to those affected by the tragedy.
The first presidential library on a university campus was dedicated on May 22, 1971, with former President Johnson, Lady Bird Johnson and then-President Richard Nixon in attendance. Constructed on the eastern side of the main campus, the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum is one of 13 presidential libraries administered by the National Archives and Records Administration.
A statue of Martin Luther King Jr. was unveiled on campus in 1999 and subsequently vandalized.[48] By 2004, John Butler, a professor at the McCombs School of Business suggested moving it to Morehouse College, a historically black college, "a place where he is loved".[48]
Recent history
The University of Texas at Austin has experienced a wave of new construction recently with several significant buildings. On April 30, 2006, the school opened the Blanton Museum of Art.[49] In August 2008, the AT&T Executive Education and Conference Center opened, with the hotel and conference center forming part of a new gateway to the university. Also in 2008, Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium was expanded to a seating capacity of 100,119, making it the largest stadium (by capacity) in the state of Texas at the time.
On Tuesday, September 28, 2010, a shooting occurred at the Perry–Castañeda Library (PCL) where student Colton Tooley, armed with an AK-47, fired shots on his walk from Guadalupe Street to the library's front entrance. The student ascended to the sixth floor, before killing himself. No one else was injured, except for one sprained ankle suffered by a female student fleeing the scene.[50]
On January 19, 2011, the university announced the creation of a 24-hour television network in partnership with ESPN, dubbed the Longhorn Network. ESPN agreed to pay a $300 million guaranteed rights fee over 20 years to the university and to IMG College, the school's multimedia rights partner. The network covers the university's intercollegiate athletics, music, cultural arts, and academics programs. The channel first aired in September 2011.[51][52]
In early 2020, following a major outbreak of the new coronavirus, the university restricted travel to Wuhan province in China, aligning with the U.S. Department of State's recommendation.[53] By March 17, 2020, then-UT President Gregory L. Fenves announced a transition to online classes for the rest of the spring semester after 49 confirmed COVID-19 cases emerged from students' travels to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, during spring break.[54] Throughout the summer, the university reported over 400 cases and its first COVID-19-related death, a custodial worker.[55][56]
The fall 2020 semester consisted of a majority of online courses through platforms like Zoom. On August 6, 2020, UT Austin initiated plans for free COVID-19 tests for all students. UT Austin returned to primarily in-person classes and campus activities for the fall 2021 semester, implementing safety protocols like testing requirements and vaccination incentives to ensure a safe return amid the ongoing pandemic.[57]
In 2021, UT Austin leaders worked with Dan Patrick, Lieutenant General of Texas, and private donors to set up a Liberty Institute at the university. In 2022, Patrick said that the Liberty Institute was created to restrict teaching about critical race theory. Patrick's remarks sparked concerns about academic freedom and freedom of thought on campus.[58]
In 2024, after four years of test-optional admissions for undergraduate applications due to the COVID-19 pandemic, standardized testing scores were once again made a mandatory part of admissions, beginning with applications for the Fall 2025 semester.[59] Jay Hartzell commented that the SAT acd ACT standardized exams were "a proven differentiator that is in each student's and the University's best interest."[59]
The university's Division of Diversity and Community Engagement operates the University of Texas-University Charter School, a charter school system with 23 campuses across Texas.
The university's property totals 1,438.5 acres (582.1 ha), comprising the 423.5 acres (171.4 ha) for the Main Campus in central Austin and the J. J. Pickle Research Campus in north Austin and the other properties throughout Texas. The main campus has 150 buildings totaling over 18,000,000 square feet (1,700,000 m2).
One of the university's most visible features is the Beaux-Arts Main Building, including a 307-foot (94 m) tower designed by Paul Philippe Cret.[60] Completed in 1937, the Main Building is in the middle of campus. The tower usually appears illuminated in white light in the evening but is lit burnt orange for various special occasions, including athletic victories and academic accomplishments; conversely, it is darkened for solemn occasions.[61] At the top of the tower is a carillon of 56 bells, the largest in Texas. Songs are played on weekdays by student carillonneurs,[62] in addition to the usual pealing of Westminster Quarters every quarter-hour between 6 a.m. and 9 p.m.[63] In 1998, after the installation of security and safety measures, the observation deck reopened to the public indefinitely for weekend tours.[64]
The university's seven museums and seventeen libraries hold over nine million volumes, making it the seventh-largest academic library in the country.[65] The holdings of the university's Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center include one of only 21 remaining complete copies of the Gutenberg Bible and the first permanent photograph, View from the Window at Le Gras, taken by Nicéphore Niépce.[66] The newest museum, the 155,000-square-foot (14,400 m2) Blanton Museum of Art, is the largest university art museum in the United States and hosts approximately 17,000 works from Europe, the United States, and Latin America.[67][68] The Perry–Castañeda Library, which houses the central University Libraries operations and the Perry–Castañeda Library Map Collection, is at the heart of campus. The Benson Latin American Collection holds the largest collection of Latin American materials among US university libraries,[69] and maintains substantial digital collections.[70]
The University of Texas at Austin has an extensive tunnel system that links the buildings on campus. Constructed c. 1928 under the supervision of UT engineering professor Carl J. Eckhardt Jr., then head of the physical plant, the tunnels have grown along with the campus.[71] They measure approximately six miles in length.[72][73] The tunnel system is used for communications and utility service. It is closed to the public and guarded by silent alarms. Since the late 1940s, the university has generated its own electricity. Today its natural gas cogeneration plant has a capacity of 123 MW. The university also operates a TRIGA nuclear reactor at the J. J. Pickle Research Campus.[74][75]
The university continues to expand its facilities on campus. In 2010, the university opened the state-of-the-art Norman Hackerman building (on the site of the former Experimental Sciences Building) housing chemistry and biology research and teaching laboratories. In 2010, the university broke ground on the $120 million Bill & Melinda Gates Computer Science Complex and Dell Computer Science Hall and the $51 million Belo Center for New Media, both of which are now complete.[76][77] The new LEED gold-certified, 110,000-square-foot (10,000 m2) Student Activity Center (SAC) opened in January 2011, housing study rooms, lounges and food vendors. The SAC was constructed as a result of a student referendum passed in 2006 which raised student fees by $65 per semester.[78] In 2012, the Moody Foundation awarded the College of Communication $50 million, the largest endowment any communication college has received, so naming it the Moody College of Communication.
The university operates two public radio stations, KUT with news and information, and KUTX with music, via local FM broadcasts as well as live streaming audio over the Internet. The university uses CapMetro to provide bus transportation for students around the campus on the UT Shuttle system and throughout Austin, and UT students, faculty, and staff with an active UT ID card are able to ride public transportation without paying a fare.[79]
The university contains eighteen colleges and schools and one academic unit, each listed with its founding date:[80]
- Cockrell School of Engineering (1894)
- Dell Medical School (2013)
- College of Education (1905)
- College of Fine Arts (1938)
- College of Liberal Arts (1883)
- College of Natural Sciences (1883)
- College of Pharmacy (1893 in Galveston, moved to Austin 1927)
- Continuing Education (1909)
- Graduate Studies (1910)
- Jackson School of Geosciences (2005)
- LBJ School of Public Affairs (1970)
- McCombs School of Business (1922)
- Moody College of Communication (1965)
- School of Architecture (1948)
- School of Information (1948)
- School of Law (1883)
- School of Nursing (1976)
- School of Undergraduate Studies (2008)
- Steve Hicks School of Social Work (1950)
The University of Texas at Austin offers more than 100 undergraduate and 170 graduate degrees. In the 2009–2010 academic year, the university awarded a total of 13,215 degrees: 67.7% bachelor's degrees, 22.0% master's degrees, 6.4% doctoral degrees, and 3.9% Professional degrees.[81]
In addition, the university has nine honors programs, eight of which span a variety of academic fields: Liberal Arts Honors, the Business Honors Program, the Turing Scholars Program in Computer Science, Engineering Honors, the Dean's Scholars Program in Natural Sciences, the Health Science Scholars Program in Natural Sciences, the Polymathic Scholars Program in Natural Sciences, and the Undergraduate Nursing Honors Program in School of Nursing. The ninth is the Plan II Honors Program, a rigorous interdisciplinary program that is a major in and of itself.[82] Many Plan II students pursue a second major, often participating in another department's honors program in addition to Plan II.[83] The university also offers programs such as the Freshman Research Initiative and Texas Interdisciplinary Plan.[84]
Admission
Undergraduate
Undergraduate admissions statistics | |
---|---|
Admit rate | 28.8 ( −11.6) |
Yield rate | 47.7 ( +2.2) |
Test scores middle 50% | |
SAT Total | 1230-1480 (among 56% of FTFs) |
ACT Composite | 29-34 (among 26% of FTFs) |
The University of Texas at Austin encourages applicants to submit SAT/ACT scores, but it is not required.[87] However, for students applying for admission from Fall 2025 onwards, submission of SAT/ACT scores is mandatory as part of their undergraduate admission application. [88] As of 2011, the university was one of the most selective universities in the region. Relative to other universities in the state of Texas, UT Austin was second to Rice University in selectivity according to a Business Journal study weighing acceptance rates and the mid-range of the SAT and ACT. The University of Texas at Austin was ranked as the 18th most selective in the South.[89]
As a state public university, UT Austin was subject to Texas House Bill 588, which guaranteed Texas high school seniors graduating in the top 10% of their class admission to any public Texas university. A new state law granting UT Austin (but no other state university) a partial exemption from the top 10% rule, Senate Bill 175, was passed by the 81st Legislature in 2009. It modified this admissions policy by limiting automatically admitted freshmen to 75% of the entering in-state freshman class, starting in 2011. The university will admit the top one percent, the top two percent and so forth until the cap is reached; the university currently admits the top 6 percent.[90] Furthermore, students admitted under Texas House Bill 588 are not guaranteed their choice of college or major, but rather only guaranteed admission to the university as a whole. Many colleges, such as the Cockrell School of Engineering, have secondary requirements that must be met for admission.[91]
For others who go through the traditional application process, selectivity is deemed "more selective" according to the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and by U.S. News & World Report.[92][93] For Fall 2017, 51,033 applied and 18,620 were accepted (36.5%), and of those accepted, 45.2% enrolled.[94] Among freshman students who enrolled in Fall 2017, SAT scores for the middle 50% ranged from 570 to 690 for critical reading and 600–710 for math.[94] ACT composite scores for the middle 50% ranged from 26 to 31.[94] In terms of class rank, 74.4% of enrolled freshmen were in the top 10% of their high school classes and 91.7% ranked in the top quarter.[94] For Fall 2019, 53,525 undergraduate students applied, 17,029 undergraduate students were admitted, and 8,170 undergraduate students enrolled in the university full or part time, making the acceptance rate 31.8% and enrollment rate 48% overall.[95] In the 2020–2021 academic year, 79 freshman students were National Merit Scholars.[96]
2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Applicants | 66,043 | 57,241 | 53,525 | 50,575 | 51,033 | 47,511 |
Admits | 18,989 | 18,291 | 17,029 | 19,482 | 18,620 | 19,182 |
Admit rate | 28.8 | 32.0 | 31.8 | 38.5 | 36.5 | 40.4 |
Enrolled | 9,060 | 8,459 | 8,170 | 8,960 | 8,381 | 8,719 |
Yield rate | 47.7 | 46.2 | 48.0 | 46.0 | 45.0 | 45.5 |
ACT composite* (out of 36) |
29-34 (26%†) | 26-33 (47%†) | 27-33 (54%†) | 27-33 (56%†) | 26-33 (65%†) | 26-32 (64%†) |
SAT composite* (out of 1600) |
1230-1480 (56%†) | 1220-1450 (79%†) | 1240-1470 (79%†) | 1230-1480 (78%†) | 1230-1460 (73%†) | — |
* middle 50% range † percentage of first-time freshmen who chose to submit |
Rankings
Academic rankings | |
---|---|
National | |
ARWU[101] | 25 |
Forbes[102] | 31 |
U.S. News & World Report[103] | 32 |
Washington Monthly[104] | 87 |
WSJ / College Pulse[105] | 118 |
Global | |
ARWU[106] | 43 |
QS[107] | 58 |
THE[108] | 52 |
U.S. News & World Report[109] | 43 |
The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin) was ranked 32nd among all universities in the U.S. and 9th among public universities according to U.S. News & World Report's 2024 rankings.[103] Internationally, UT Austin was ranked 43rd in the 2023 "Best Global Universities" ranking by U.S. News & World Report, 43rd in the world by Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) in 2023, 52nd worldwide by Times Higher Education World University Rankings (2024), and 58th globally by QS World University Rankings (2024). UT Austin was also ranked 34th in the world by the Center for World University Rankings (CWUR) in 2023.[110]
The University of Texas at Austin is considered to be a "Public Ivy"—a public university that provides an Ivy League collegiate experience at a public school price, having been ranked in virtually every list of "Public Ivies" since Richard Moll coined the term in his 1985 book Public Ivies: A Guide to America's best public undergraduate colleges and universities. The seven other "Public Ivy" universities, according to Moll, were the College of William & Mary, Miami University, the University of California, the University of Michigan, the University of North Carolina, the University of Vermont, and the University of Virginia.[111]
The Accounting and Latin American History programs are consistently ranked top in the nation by the U.S. News & World Report college rankings, most recently in their 2023 and 2021 editions, respectively.[112][113] More than 50 other science, humanities, and professional programs rank in the top 25 nationally.[114] The College of Pharmacy is listed as the third-best in the nation and The School of Information (iSchool) is sixth-best in Library and Information Sciences.[114] Among other rankings, the School of Social Work is 7th, the Jackson School of Geosciences is 8th for Earth Sciences, the Cockrell School of Engineering is tied for 10th-best (with the undergraduate engineering program tied for 11th-best in the country), the Nursing School is tied for 13th, the University of Texas School of Law is 15th, the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs is 7th, and the McCombs School of Business is tied for 16th-best (with the undergraduate business program tied for 5th-best in the country).[114]
The University of Texas School of Architecture was ranked second among national undergraduate programs in 2012.[115]
A 2005 Bloomberg survey ranked the school 5th among all business schools and first among public business schools for the largest number of alumni who are S&P 500 CEOs.[116] Similarly, a 2005 USA Today report ranked the university as "the number one source of new Fortune 1000 CEOs".[117] A "payback" analysis published by SmartMoney in 2011 comparing graduates' salaries to tuition costs concluded the school was the second-best value of all colleges in the nation, behind only Georgia Tech.[118] A 2013 College Database study found that UT Austin was 22nd in the nation in terms of increased lifetime earnings by graduates.[119]
UT Austin is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity."[93] For the 2014–2015 cycle, the university was awarded over $580 million in sponsored projects,[120][121] and has earned more than 300 patents since 2003.[122] The University of Texas at Austin houses the Office of Technology Commercialization, a technology transfer center which serves as the bridge between laboratory research and commercial development. In 2009, the university created nine new start-up companies to commercialize technology developed at the university and has created 46 start-ups in the past seven years. License agreements generated $10.9 million in revenue for the university in 2009.[122] In January 2020, the University of Texas Austin's Texas Innovation Center was established to provide support for startups.[123]
Research at UT Austin is largely focused in the engineering and physical sciences,[124] and the university is a world-leading research institution in fields such as computer science.[125] Energy is a major research thrust, with federally funded projects on biofuels,[126] battery and solar cell technology, and geological carbon dioxide storage,[127] water purification membranes, among others. In 2009, the University of Texas founded the Energy Institute, led by former Under Secretary for Science Raymond L. Orbach, to organize and advance multi-disciplinary energy research.[128] In addition to its own medical school, it houses medical programs associated with other campuses and allied health professional programs, as well as major research programs in pharmacy, biomedical engineering, neuroscience, and others.
In 2010, the University of Texas at Austin opened the $100 million Dell Pediatric Research Institute to increase medical research at the university and establish a medical research complex, and associated medical school, in Austin.[129][130]
The university operates several major auxiliary research centers. The world's third-largest telescope, the Hobby–Eberly Telescope, and three other large telescopes are part of the university's McDonald Observatory, 450 miles (720 km) west of Austin.[131][132] The university manages nearly 300 acres (120 ha) of biological field laboratories, including the Brackenridge Field Laboratory in Austin. The Center for Agile Technology focuses on software development challenges.[133] The J.J. Pickle Research Campus (PRC) is home to the Texas Advanced Computing Center which operates a series of supercomputers, such as Ranger (from 2008 to 2013 [134]), Stampede (2013–2017 [135]), Stampede2 (since 2017 [136]), and Frontera (since 2019).[137] The Pickle campus also hosts the Microelectronics Research Center which houses micro- and nanoelectronics research and features a 15,000 square foot (1,400 m2) cleanroom for device fabrication.
Founded in 1946, the university's Applied Research Laboratories at the PRC has developed or tested the vast majority of the Navy's high-frequency sonar equipment. In 2007, the Navy granted it a research contract funded up to $928 million over ten years.[138][139] The Institute for Advanced Technology, founded in 1990 and located in the West Pickle Research Building, supports the U.S. Army with basic and applied research in several fields.
The Center for Transportation Research is a nationally recognized research institution focusing on transportation research, education, and public service. Established in 1963 as the Center for Highway Research, its projects address virtually all aspects of transportation, including economics, multimodal systems, traffic congestion relief, transportation policy, materials, structures, transit, environmental impacts, driver behavior, land use, geometric design, accessibility, and pavements.[140]
In 2013, the University of Texas at Austin announced the naming of the O'Donnell Building for Applied Computational Engineering and Sciences. The O'Donnell Foundation of Dallas, headed by Peter O'Donnell and his wife, Edith Jones O'Donnell, has given more than $135 million to the university between 1983 and 2013. University president William C. Powers declared the O'Donnells "among the greatest supporters of the University of Texas in its 130-year history. Their transformative generosity is based on the belief in our power to change society for the better."[141] In 2008, O'Donnell pledged $18 million to finance the hiring of university faculty members undertaking research in mathematics, computers, and multiple scientific disciplines; his pledge was matched by W. A. "Tex" Moncrief Jr., an oilman and philanthropist from Fort Worth.[142] In addition, UT Austin and Amazon established a new science hub in 2023. [143] [144]
The University of Texas at Austin Marine Science Institute is located on the Gulf coast in Port Aransas. Established in 1941, UTMSI was the first permanent marine research facility in the state of Texas and has since contributed significantly to our understanding of marine ecosystems. Research at the Marine Science Institute ranges from locally-important work on mariculture and estuarine ecosystems to the investigation of global issues in marine science, from the Arctic to the tropics.
Endowment
The University of Texas System is entitled to at least 30% of the distributions from the Permanent University Fund (PUF), with over $33 billion in assets as of year-end 2021.[145][146] The University of Texas System gets two-thirds of the Available University Fund (the name of the annual distribution of PUF's income), and the Texas A&M University System gets the other third. A regental policy[147] requires at least 45 percent of UT System's share of this money go to the University of Texas at Austin for "program enrichment". By taking two-thirds and multiplying it by 45 percent, UT gets 30 percent, which is the minimum amount of AUF income that can be distributed to the school under current policies. The Regents, however, can decide to allocate additional amounts to the university. Also, the majority of the University of Texas system share of the AUF is used for its debt service bonds, some of which were issued for the benefit of the Austin campus.[148] The Regents can change the 45 percent minimum of the University of Texas System share that goes to the Austin campus at any time, although doing so might be difficult politically.
Proceeds from lands appropriated in 1839 and 1876, as well as oil monies, comprise the majority of PUF. At one time, the PUF was the chief source of income for Texas' two university systems, the University of Texas System and the Texas A&M University System; today, however, its revenues account for less than 10 percent of the universities' annual budgets. This has challenged the universities to increase sponsored research and private donations. Privately funded endowments contribute over $2 billion to the university's total endowment.
The University of Texas System also has about $22 billion of assets in its General Endowment Fund.[149]