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UT Southwestern declared No. 69 best university globally in new report

UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas is the No. 2 best hospital in Texas, and No. 1 in Dallas-Fort Worth.

UT Southwestern ranked No. 69 globally and No. 2 in Texas.

Photo courtesy of UT Southwestern

Dallas' UT Southwestern Medical Center is soaring toward the top of the class worldwide. The Center for World University Rankings (CWUR) has ranked UT Southwestern at No. 69 in the world on its prestigious Global 2000 list for 2026.

UT Southwestern also ranks as the No. 2 university in Texas and No. 34 in the U.S.

Each year, CWUR grades more than 21,000 universities around the world based on four factors without relying on surveys and university data submissions: education (25 percent), employability (25 percent), faculty (10 percent), and research (40 percent). For the 2026 edition, 81 million outcome-based data points were analyzed for the rankings, and the schools that placed at the top made the Global 2000 list.

Here's how CWUR ranked UT Austin's performance across the four categories:

No. 43 – Faculty rank
No. 43 – Education rank
No. 178 – Research rank
Unranked in employability

UT Southwestern often gets ranked as one of the best educational institutions, and it's also one of the best hospitals in Texas.

A total of 313 universities in the U.S. made the cut, and only two other Texas universities earned spots among the top 100: The University of Texas at Austin and Texas A&M University in College Station. UT Austin ranked No. 1 statewide, No. 22 nationally, and No. 35 globally; and Texas A&M ranked No. 3 statewide, No. 44 nationally, and No. 91 globally.

In the past year, U.S. News and World Report, Forbes, and WalletHub, have praised the home of the Longhorns as one of the best universities in America. It's a listmaker's favorite in other global ranking reports, including those that focus on graduate schools. UT has maintained its high-ranking status in these annual rankings even as university leaders face criticism from students for closing and consolidating several programs.

These are the top 10 best universities in the world for 2026, according to CWUR:

Harvard University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Stanford University
University of Cambridge
University of Oxford
Princeton University
University of Pennsylvania
Columbia University
Yale University
University of Chicago

rankings dallas ut southwestern

Cashing In

Texas cashes in among top-10 best U.S. state economies in 2026 report

Elevated View of the Margaret Hunt Bridge and the Dallas Skyline at Dusk

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A new study gauging the success or decline in economic performance in every state has revealed Texas' economy remains stable in 2026 after it dropped out of the top five to No. 8 last year.

WalletHub declared Texas boasts the No. 8 best state economy in the U.S. this year, according to its annual "Best & Worst State Economies" report. The personal finance website's analysts ranked all 50 states and the District of Columbia across 28 relevant metrics to measure each state's economic activity and health status, and its "innovation potential."

Notably, Texas leads the nation for the most exports per capita in the U.S. in a five-way tie with Louisiana, Kentucky, North Dakota, and Indiana. Across the study's three main categories, Texas ranked highly for its economic activity (No. 7) and economic health (No. 11), and the state's "innovation potential" rank is the 24th best in the nation.

This is how WalletHub ranked Texas' economic performance, where No. 1 is considered the best and No. 25 is considered average:

No. 6 – Change in non-farm payrolls
No. 8 – Change in GDP
No. 8 – Startup activity
No. 11 – Annual median household income
No. 18 – Government surplus/deficit per capita
No. 21 – Percentage of jobs in high-tech industries
No. 30 – Unemployment rate

WalletHub previously ranked Texas the third-best state to start a business in 2026, with Dallas-Fort Worth leading the nation on a separate ranking of the best big cities for new businesses and for starting a career.

"U.S. economic growth depends heavily on the performance of individual states, and some contribute more than others," the report's author wrote. "For example, California, Texas, New York and Florida have economies so large that if they were countries, they would rank in the top 20 in the world."

The five states with the worst state economies in 2026 are Rhode Island (No. 47), Maine (No. 48), Louisana (No. 49), Kentucky (No. 50), and West Virginia (No. 51).

The top 10 best state economies for 2026 are:

No. 1 – Massachusetts
No. 2 – Washington
No. 3 – Utah
No. 4 – California
No. 5 – Delaware
No. 6 – North Carolina
No. 7 – New York
No. 8 – Texas
No. 9 – Colorado
No. 10 – Florida

wallethub texas innovation economy