The University of Florida remained No. 7 among public universities, according to the latest U.S. News & World Report rankings, released Sept. 23.

UF ranked No. 15 among the nation’s most innovative schools — a specialized ranking that recognizes universities for improvements in curriculum, faculty, students, campus life, technology or facilities — up 23 spots from last year.

The U.S. News & World Report evaluated nearly 1,700 colleges and universities, using 17 measures of “academic quality” and “graduate success” to produce its 2026 Best Colleges rankings.

Student outcome measures — namely enrollment and graduation rates — played an outsized role in ranking methodology, with a weight of over 50%.

Top factors included in the rankings this year were peer assessment (20%), graduation rates (16%), graduation rate performance (10%), financial resources per student (8%) and faculty salaries (6%).

The University of California – Berkeley ranked as the nation’s No. 1 public university.

Higher ed: Former UF law professor has emeritus status revoked after comments about Kirk, Trump

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Among all universities, UF also remained tied at No. 30 with The University of Texas-Austin. Right behind UF and tied for 32nd were The Georgia Institute of Technology, New York University, University of California – Davis and University of California – Irvine

Vanderbilt University in Nashville was the highest ranked school in the Southeastern Conference, up one spot to No. 17 overall. Florida State University moved up two spots this year to No. 21 among public universities and three spots to No. 51 overall.

Among all institutions, Princeton led the way followed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard, Stanford and Yale.

Here’s how UF placed in the US News and World’s Report’s other 2026 rankings (previous year’s ranking in parenthesis).

• Best Value Schools – No 85 (101)

• Most Innovative Schools – No. 15 (38)

• Top performers on Social Mobility – No. 59 (51)

• Undergraduate Teaching Program – No. 39 (N/A)

• Undergraduate Business Program – No. 24 (23)

• Undergraduate Economics Program – No. 66 (65)

• Undergraduate Computer Science Program – No. 48 (46)

• Undergraduate Engineering Program – No. 32 (35)

• Best Colleges for Veterans – No. 14 (14)

• Bachelor of Science Nursing Program – No. 40 (19)

• Undergraduate Psychology Program – No. 60 (42)

Forbes recently ranked UF the No. 5 public university in the nation and No. 30 among all institutions.

UF has not had a permanent president for over a year. The university recently selected Dr. Donald Landry, a professor of medicine from Columbia University, as its new interim president. Landry aims to make permanent appointments to other leadership positions in colleges throughout the university during his tenure.

UF currently has interim deans at its Levin College of Law, College of Medicine, College of the Arts, Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering and the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

The university is expected to begin its search for a permanent leader in early 2026.

This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: UF ranks No. 7 in 2026 US News & World Report rankings