UHCL top public school in Texas in U.S. News western regional rankings

September 9, 2019 | Jim Townsend

In U.S. News and World Report’s 2020 rankings of western regional four-year universities, University of Houston-Clear Lake is the No. 1 public university in Texas, according to the magazine's Best Colleges report released today. For the entire 13-state region, UH-Clear Lake placed 18th on the Top Public Schools list.

Widening the field to include both public and private schools, UHCL is in a six-way tie for 43rd in 2020 rankings of Best Regional Universities - West, up from 61st in 2019. The magazine ranked approximately 130 private and public colleges and universities in a region that includes Texas, Arkansas, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Oregon, Utah and Washington. Of the 26 Texas schools on the list, UHCL tied for 9th place among public and private institutions.

“We take U.S. News rankings seriously as they provide an unbiased measurement of our overall performance against peer universities,” said UHCL President Ira K. Blake. “These rankings confirm for me that a fully integrated, student-centered, community-oriented, partnership-minded focus is the correct approach to serving our region.”

Each year, U.S. News sends an extensive questionnaire to all accredited four-year colleges and universities. Data collection for the 2020 edition of the report took place during spring 2019, comparing factors such as SAT and ACT scores, acceptance rates, six-year graduation and first-year student retention rates, student-faculty ratios, faculty counts and salaries, tuition, room and board, other student fees and financial resources.

UHCL debuted on the 2016 Best Regional Universities - West rankings in 81st place. It climbed to 74th in 2017, 63rd in 2018, 61st place in 2019 and 43rd for 2020. Factors in UHCL’s current rankings include:

• 3.0 peer assessment score.
• 74% avg. first-year retention rate.
• 33% of classes under 20.
• 5% of classes 50 or more.
• 15-to-1 student/faculty ratio.
• 1030-1200 SAT/ACT 25th-75h percentile.
• 41% first-year students in top 25% of high school class.
• 45% acceptance rate.
• 6% avg. alumni giving rate.

“The continued improvement in our regional rankings demonstrates that UHCL is making significant strides in enhancing academic excellence through first-year retention, graduation rates and the strength of its faculty,” said Steven J. Berberich, senior vice president for academic affairs and provost. “I am particularly pleased that UHCL ranks at the top of public regional universities in the state of Texas. This, coupled with our commitment to educating a diverse student population, shows we are meeting the needs of the state.”

UHCL also improved its score for Best Value among western regional public and private institutions, moving up to 25th place from 58th last year.

The university also made the western regional list for Campus Ethnic Diversity, scoring 0.65 on a 1.0 Diversity Index scale, which puts UHCL in a six-way tie for 11th place across the 13 western states.

Find all of the listings in the U.S. News report online.