The university continues to be recognized as one of the world’s leading institutions.
As the productivity of the faculty and the success of students at Texas Tech continues to increase, so does the worldwide recognition of the university.
The Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) released its 2018 list of top 500 schools spanning the globe, and Texas Tech rose into that category, coming in the 401-500 range and also ranking between 118th and 139th for institutions in the U.S. Last year Texas Tech was in the category 501-600.
“Global rankings are increasingly viewed as important indicators of the academic reputation universities have among their peers worldwide,” said Lawrence Schovanec, Texas Tech president. “These rankings take into account scholarly and research factors as well as the traditional measures of student success. Texas Tech continues to enhance its reputation through the efforts of a talented faculty, student body and staff.”
The rankings are based on several indicators of academic and research performance, including the number of alumni and faculty who win Nobel Prizes in physics, chemistry, medicine and economics and Field Medals in mathematics; highly cited researchers selected by Claritive Analytics; papers published in Nature and Science magazine; papers indexed in major citation indices; and the institution's per capita academic performance from the previous indicators.
Any university that meets at least one of the criteria is ranked, and each university is ranked in each of the indicators, which factor between 10-20 percent into the total score. More than 1,500 universities around the world were ranked, with the top 500 published in the ARWU rankings and the rest earning recognition as the top candidates to be ranked.
Texas Tech recently was recognized as a leader among the world's universities, ranking in the top 3 percent of the 18,000 institutions evaluated in the 2018-19 Center for World University Rankings (CWUR) list.
During a trip to China this summer in which Texas Tech signed agreements for cooperative efforts between the university and nine Chinese universities, Schovanec noted how Texas Tech's reputation is growing around the world.
“There's no doubt Texas Tech's reputation has improved,” Schovanec said. “Many of the presidents I met with commented they were aware that Texas Tech had moved into the (Carnegie) highest research category. It was clear we have greater stature among some very good schools, and hopefully that will translate into a benefit in recruiting students.”
Texas Tech jumped 63 spots in the CWUR rankings, from the No. 500 spot in 2017 to No. 437 this year. The university also is ranked No. 126 among universities in the U.S., No. 75 among U.S. public institutions, No. 363 in citations, No. 416 in quality publications, No. 423 in research output and No. 448 in alumni employment.
Texas Tech also remained steady or rose in two other rankings this year, coming in at No. 291 (up from No. 314) in Forbes America's Top Colleges and holding steady as one of the top 750 universities in the QS World University Rankings. It was also ranked No. 242 (up from No. 261) recently in the Best Colleges in America rankings by Money Magazine, and in April, Forbes ranked Texas Tech No. 138 (up from No. 298) overall and No. 89 among public universities in its Best Value Colleges listing.
