This post was updated Sept. 26 at 12:15 p.m.
UCLA is no longer the nation’s No. 1 public university after eight years on top in the U.S. News & World Report’s annual university rankings.
UCLA was ranked as the second-best public university in the nation and 17th-best university nationally, tying with Rice University and Vanderbilt University. UC Berkeley ousted the Bruins for the top public university spot this year.
U.S. News & World Report releases annual rankings of the nation’s top universities based on criteria such as graduation and retention rates, peer assessments, financial resources per student, faculty salaries, borrower debt and federal Pell Grant recipient graduate performance.
The U.S. News & World Report’s 2026 university rankings were released in the wake of the Trump administration’s suspension of about $584 million of UCLA’s federal research grants in late July. The federal government froze the grants because of UCLA allegedly allowing antisemitism, affirmative action and “men to participate in women’s sports,” according to letters from the United States Department of Justice.
[Related: FEDERAL FUNDING CUTS TO UCLA]
A federal judge temporarily restored UCLA’s National Institutes of Health grants Monday, reinstating about $500 million in research funding. She previously unfroze UCLA’s National Science Foundation grants Aug. 12, which amounted to about $80 million.
[Related: Federal judge orders Trump administration to restore $500M of UCLA research grants]
UCLA Media Relations did not respond to a request for comment on the rankings, and a UC Berkeley spokesperson declined to comment.
