Last week, the Center for World University Rankings published its first list of the world's top 100 universities. The University of Texas at Austin came in at No. 30.

To create the rankings, the CWUR, based in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, used a set of seven criteria: educational quality, faculty quality, alumni employment, patents, publishing, faculty research citations, and influence. Besides being 30th in the world, UT is the 22nd best university in the United States and the 8th best public university.

"This ranking confirms what we've known for a long time — that world-class universities are built by world-class faculty," UT President Bill Powers said in an official press release. "I'm gratified that excellence at UT Austin has been recognized by yet another organization with a multifaceted analysis of the world's best academies. This is more good news for Texas alumni, whose diplomas increase in value the higher our rankings go.”

According to the methodology used to create the rankings, which the CWRU made public through their official website, an institution's faculty was the first factor taken into account. Along with the Nobel Prize, a total of 19 other awards, medals, and prizes covering all academic disciplines were considered. Current faculty members at UT have achieved many of the prizes on the list, including the Nobel Prize, the Turing Award, the Schock Prize and the Wolf Prize.

Gary Susswein, Director of Media Relations at UT, said the ranking recognizes the value of those that teach at the university.

"This ranking reflects the excellence of the faculty at UT and the quality of what they do here," Susswein said. "Being the 30th best university in the world also reflects on the quality of the research that's done by our faculty."

Of all the criteria used, research held the most significance. In fact, academic and scientific investigation was subdivided into four areas: the number of articles the faculty has published in peer-reviewed journals, the influence of the research being performed, the total of times the articles published have been cited by other authors and articles and the quantity of patents that have been registered with the World Intellectual Property Organization.

For Susswein, receiving recognition for the research being performed at the university is a way to let the world know the worth and impact of what's being done at UT.

"Getting noticed for our research points to the fact that we are a phenomenal, world-class institution," Susswein said. "The university is generating knowledge and the research that is done here benefits the entire world."

While the CWUR ranking is the most recent, this is not the first time UT has been named among the best higher learning institutions in the globe. For example, the Academic Rankings of World Universitiescurrently ranks UT as 38th. Also, Times Higher Education, the United Kingdom's leading higher education publication, ranks it 29th in the world.

UT Austin was preceded on the list by UT Southwestern Medical Center (29) and was followed by other Texas institutions including Rice University (57), Texas A&M (73), and UT M.D. Anderson Cancer Center (96).