The following op-ed by UT System Chancellor James B. Milliken was published in the San Antonio Express-News

From college football to barbecue, Americans love rankings.

And each year a number of media outlets release highly detailed rankings of universities, as well as their individual departments and degree programs.

Students and parents pour over these rankings, as do university leaders and communicators. They hold outsize importance in many families’ decisions about college — and how college presidents talk about their institutions.  

Fortunately, there are meaningful comparisons more important than these rankings, and when it comes to a new gold standard for measuring universities, Texas is leading the nation.

Carnegie has long been the standard for higher education leaders when it comes to measuring (not ranking) research prowess at American universities, where an “R1,” or Research 1, designation is the top. But today, as colleges face a new level of scrutiny of their cost and value, the focus will — and should — include measures of access, affordability and success.

Carnegie’s new Student Access and Earnings designation measures the extent to which institutions provide access to students and measures their relative earnings after graduation. Colleges that excel in higher access and higher earnings are designated “opportunity colleges and universities,” or OCUs.

Texas has 35 designated OCUs  — the second most of any state. As chancellor of the UT System, I’m delighted that five of those are University of Texas institutions: UT Arlington, UT El Paso, UT Tyler, UT RGV and UT San Antonio.

And when we combine the new OCU classification with the top R1 designation for research excellence, the picture gets even better for Texas. Only 19 public universities in the nation are R1 and OCU, and three are in the UT System: UT Arlington, UT El Paso and UT San Antonio.

At a time when questions about the return on investment from higher education have reduced confidence in colleges and universities, Texas is providing a powerful response. Across our institutions, students earn valuable degrees that open doors in many growing fields, while our faculty conduct groundbreaking research that advances Texas’ economy and our nation’s global competitiveness.

Our commitment to delivering value to students and advancing research excellence is not aspirational — it is a measurable reality.

For years, many universities have pursued “R1” status at all costs — sometimes at the cost of access and opportunity. As higher education rebuilds trust among the American people, more universities should seek out an OCU designation with the same fervor that they pursue R1 status. UT institutions demonstrate that universities can pursue both.

Moving forward at UT, we’ll continue to keep an eye on the rankings, and we’ll continue to celebrate our wins. But more important, we’re laser focused on how we will strive to continuously balance access, outcomes and excellence. 

The payoff goes beyond individual students. When we help students, we also boost families, foster engaged communities and cultivate a more vibrant Texas economy.

Higher education is at a crossroads. With more people calling Texas home and new industries reshaping the job market, we need to make sure our colleges open doors and deliver real returns.

Public universities are rising to meet that challenge, and continued support and investment is essential. Texas’ public universities are demonstrating how they can be  engines of economic mobility and centers of outstanding research. Access and excellence are not mutually exclusive goals. Texas has a model that does both. We should recognize it, celebrate it and — above all — strengthen it.