The Tickle College of Engineering ranked 33rd amongst public universities, 42nd overall, in the latest U.S. News and World Report ranking of online master’s engineering programs, released Wednesday.

There are many online options for advanced degrees and certificates through the college, including advanced manufacturing, hypersonics, engineering management, and computer science.

Rankings are determined based off scoring in five categories:

• Engagement (25 percent): Takes into account the amount of participation that students have in online courses, the willingness and responsiveness of faculty related to engaging with students, and having an overall program that develops students through a quality educational experience over a reasonable time frame;
• Faculty Credentials and Training (25 percent): Measures if the faculty leading online courses are as reputable as ones teaching in-person classes, and if they have the resources they need to succeed;
• Peer Assessment (25 percent): Uses a survey of academic officials to determine what regard other institutions have for a given college, its faculty, its students, and its programs;
• Services and Technologies (12.5 percent): Looks at the availability of support available to students, how well it mirrors in-person students, and how well various technologies related to online courses are utilized;
• Student Excellence (12.5 percent): Determines if the rigors of coursework are what they need to be, if students are rising to the challenge in ways that reflect well, and if degrees being conferred are done so in accordance with standards.

Unlike the graduate and undergraduate program rankings that typically get released in spring and fall, respectively, not every discipline within engineering is ranked in the online edition. For 2024, civil, environmental, and industrial engineering, along with computer science, engineering management, and reliability and maintainability engineering were the five areas of study calculated in the rankings, along with how accessible online programs were for veterans.

The online program rankings are based on surveys sent to 222 schools.

Read about other UT programs ranked in this year’s ranking.