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Texas A&M University adds new urban campus in cosmopolitan Dallas

NorthPark Center presents Landscape Tour

The new campus is across from NorthPark Center.

Photo courtesy of NorthPark Center

Texas A&M University-Commerce is making a high-profile expansion into Dallas: According to a release, the university will add a new site, located on the top two floors of 8750 N. Central Expwy., where it will set up headquarters for its education and business colleges.

The A&M-Commerce College of Business and College of Education and Human Services will eventually offer several programs at the new site. Both colleges' deans will have their offices at the new location.

The university plans to offer bachelor's degrees at the site in sustainable agriculture & food systems, agribusiness, agricultural sciences, and fine arts in visual communications, as well as a masters in fine arts in visual communications.

A&M-Commerce already operates extended locations in Frisco, McKinney, and Mesquite. This new site increases its footprint in the DFW area and also in a prime metropolitan location, across from NorthPark Center, a glamorous sophisticated area that is the total opposite of rural.

"We've had our eye on Dallas for some time now, and this location, right across from NorthPark Mall — where more than 322,000 people pass by every day — gives us a very visible presence to let everyone know we’ve arrived," says Chancellor John Sharp in a statement.

According to A&M-Commerce President Mark Rudin, classes at the new location will begin November 1. The site is currently undergoing interior design.

A&M hopes the Dallas site will promote synergies with corporate partners in program and workforce development and reskilling.

The site's proximity to Dallas College campuses and several independent school districts will also encourage working relationships with the university's educational partners, Rudin says in the release.

The new Dallas location will offer enrollment management, financial aid, career services, student success teams, academic advising, and technical support, with tech-enabled shared spaces, an on-site fitness center, food services, and parking. The site is also on the DART rail line.

The Texas A&M University System is a statewide network of 11 universities, a health science center, and eight state agencies, including the Texas Division of Emergency Management.

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Dallas climbs back up in ranking of 'World's Best Cities' for 2025

Photo by Bryan Dickerson on Unsplash

Dallas had made a major leap back into the top 50.

Dallas has made a big rebound in its status among the top 100 best cities in the world, according to a prestigious new report by Resonance Consultancy.

The Canada-based real estate and tourism marketing advisors ranked Dallas the 55th best city worldwide for 2025 in its annual "World's Best Cities" list.

A ranking of 55 might not seem all that, but it represents a major rebound after Dallas plummeted to No. 73 in last year's report. (Let's ignore the fact that, in 2022, Dallas ranked No. 47.)

London held onto its crown as the No. 1 best city in the world for 2025, followed by New York (No. 2), Paris (No. 3), Tokyo (No. 4), and Singapore (No. 5).

The report quantifies the relative qualities of livability, "lovability," and prosperity for the world's top 100 cities with metropolitan populations of 1 million or more. New to the 10th anniversary edition, Resonance partnered with global market researchers Ipsos to include perception-based data into the rankings, surveying over 22,000 people in 30 countries worldwide to determine "the most desirable places to visit, live or work."

Resonance refers to its previous "World's Best Cities" reports and its 2024 "America's Best Cities" list – which ranked Dallas in the top 20 – when explaining the city's successes. The report praised Dallas' booming population, a thriving corporate economy, and its diverse culture.

"From 2021 to 2022, Dallas experienced the largest population increase of any U.S. metro area, with a net increase of more than 170,000 people, according to the Census Bureau," the report's author wrote. "Home to more than 10,000 corporate headquarters — the largest concentration in the U.S. — the city ranks No. 33 globally for Fortune 500 companies."

Elsewhere in Texas, Austin and Houston also earned spots on the World's Best Cities list for 2025, but only one made a similar rebound from the previous year's rankings. Houston moved up from No. 66 in last year's report to its current rank as No. 40. Meanwhile, Austin took its first tumble out of the 43rd spot (which it had occupied for two years straight) and now ranks No. 53.

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