About Us

Located in Austin, Texas, one of the fastest growing cities in the U.S. – and one that is widely recognized for its creative community and entrepreneurial spirit – the Moody College uniquely positions students to gain first-hand experience with the rapidly growing and changing communication environment. As members of one of the world’s leading public research universities with over 170 fields of study, Moody students and faculty enjoy access to the unparalleled range of expertise available on the UT Austin campus.

The college comprises five academic units, each offering undergraduate and graduate degrees: advertising and public relations; communication studies; journalism and media; radio-television-film; and speech, language and hearing sciences. Moody faculty include nationally and internationally recognized teachers and scholars who conduct path-breaking research and are renowned for their accomplishments and impact. Each of the college’s programs ranks highly in various publications and rankings, often within the top 10 programs in its respective field, setting standards for the entire communication discipline. 

Moody is also home to the award-winning public radio stations KUT and KUTX and to Texas Student Media, including The Daily Texan student newspaper. These elements of the college operate on an enterprise basis, generating revenue to cover their operating costs. Their leadership is part of the dean’s senior staff. They bring attention to the college, create experiential-learning opportunities for students and further add to Moody’s unique breadth.

In addition to its five academic units, Moody sustains 15 centers, institutes and programs (known as the CIPs). The CIPs bring together faculty and students across Moody disciplines and often engage faculty and students from other areas of the university and beyond in innovative, often industry-aligned, research and innovation. As focal points for research, the CIPs collectively generated nearly $12M in external funding in FY 2022. The college’s current portfolio of sponsored projects counts over 100 projects with a total award value of $44M.

The college maintains deep connections to the various industries it represents through its broadly talented faculty, strong alumni base and industry partnerships, including its locations in Los Angeles and New York. Its newest building, the G.B. Dealey Center for New Media, builds on these strengths and promotes new models for communication research and education for the 21st century.

Moody College currently employs 224 faculty, including 80 tenured, 28 tenure-track and 116 professional track faculty. As of fall 2022, Moody has nearly 5,000 undergraduate and graduate students enrolled. The College attracts top students and provides opportunities to conduct relevant research in a challenging yet collaborative hands-on environment. Degrees offered span bachelor, masters and doctoral levels and include seven undergraduate degrees, 13 undergraduate minors and 14 graduate degrees, along with master’s degree programs that do not receive state formula funding.

In FY 2022, Moody reported revenue from all sources including research direct expenditures and auxiliaries (largely KUT, KUTX, and Texas Student Media) of $135M. Of this total, approximately $22M came through the auxiliaries and $43M from gifts and endowment payout. The University of Texas Investment Management Company, UTIMCO, manages the College’s endowment.

By virtue of its public mission, culture of innovation, location, size and rich history, The University of Texas at Austin (UT) is one of the highest-impact universities in the world. As the top public university in Texas and the flagship of The University of Texas System, UT is an influential catalyst for scientific, economic and societal progress throughout the state.

Established in 1883, the university’s main campus now spans 431 acres and has a community of 51,000 students, 3,500 faculty members and more than 15,000 staff members. In addition to its main campus near downtown Austin, UT extends to the J.J. Pickle Research Campus in north Austin, the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center in south Austin, the McDonald Observatory in west Texas, the Marine Science Institute in Port Aransas and several cultural and historic sites across the state.

The university is a leader in the fields of energy, computer science, entrepreneurship and national security, and its graduate programs in accounting, petroleum engineering, geology, Latin American history and the sociology of population rank No. 1 in the United States. UT has been designated as a Hispanic-Serving Institution and is among the top producers of doctoral degrees in the nation.

UT offers more than 150 undergraduate degree programs and more than 230 graduate programs across its 19 colleges and schools in the sciences, arts, humanities and professions:

• Cockrell School of Engineering
• College of Education
• College of Fine Arts
• College of Liberal Arts
• College of Natural Sciences
• College of Pharmacy
• Dell Medical School
• Graduate School
• Jackson School of Geosciences
• LBJ School of Public Affairs
• McCombs School of Business
• Moody College of Communication
• School of Architecture
• School of Civic Leadership
• School of Information
• School of Law
• School of Nursing
• School of Undergraduate Studies
• Stevie Hicks School of Social Work

Each year, UT researchers publish work that focuses on fighting and treating diseases, devising solutions to global problems, addressing critically important social issues and improving the human condition. As just one recent example, the lab of Jason McLellan, a faculty member in the Department of Molecular Biosciences, was critical to the development of COVID-19 vaccines. UT Austin faculty have won Nobel Prizes, Macarthur “genius” fellowships, Abel Prizes, A.M. Turing Awards, Guggenheim Fellowships and countless other awards for distinctions in their fields. 

A member of the Association of American Universities since 1929, UT attracts over $800 million annually for research. Through a succession of large grants from the National Science Foundation, UT has built a collection of the fastest supercomputers for open research in the world. The Department of Defense has designated UT’s Applied Research Laboratories as one of five University Affiliated Research Centers for the Navy, and the university is a major collaborator with the Army Futures Command.

Research by the Numbers

• $845.9 million — Research expenditures (FY22)
• 3,799 externally sponsored projects
• 5,000+ peer-reviewed articles published
• 110 patents issued, U.S. & foreign (FY21)
• 182 invention disclosures filed
• 671 active licenses
• 91 licenses executed

Research-Related Rankings

• No. 1 among U.S. universities in research financed by the National Science Foundation
• No. 5 among U.S. universities in research financed by the Department of Defense
• No. 8 among U.S. universities in research financed by the Department of Energy
• No. 3 in world for most patents granted (UT System-wide), National Academy of Inventors
• No. 24 in the world for arts & humanities research, US News
• No. 18 for scientific research, Nature Index
• No. 14 most innovative school, US News
• No. 19 for undergraduate research/creative projects, US News

UT has many academic programs ranked in the top 25 nationally, and the number continues to rise every year. At the graduate level, 53 programs rank among the top 10, representing more than a dozen of the university’s colleges and schools. Almost 40 other programs rank in the top 25. The Times Higher Education World University Rankings for 2022 lists the university as the 47th best university in the world, while U.S. News & World Report ranks it 10^th among American public universities.

The university’s holdings comprise more than 170 million objects including a Gutenberg Bible and other rare books, manuscripts, photographs, and artworks and artifacts from natural history to pop culture in eight museums and 17 libraries. The Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library was the first presidential library to be located on a university campus.

Over the past 15 years, the campus has undergone a significant modernization and expansion of its research, academic and community spaces. Recent new buildings — like the Gates Computer Science Complex and Dell Computer Science Hall, the G.B. Dealey Center for New Media, the Engineering Education and Research Center, the Health Discovery and Health Transformation Buildings, Robert B. Rowling Hall and the Gary L. Thomas Energy Engineering Building — have added new state-of-the-art facilities, high-tech labs and dynamic collaboration spaces that are transforming the student and faculty experience.

The university’s large and diverse student body, storied history, strong and supportive community and richness of tradition have given rise to a proud alumni base of more than 500,000. These “Texas Exes” include founders or co-founders of Dell Computers, American Airlines, DreamWorks, 7-Eleven, National Instruments, CarMax and Clear Channel Communications. Among UT’s many well-known alumni are Matthew McConaughey, Kevin Durant, Michael Dell, Laura Bush, Jenna Bush Hager, Arthel Neville, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Wes Anderson, Robert Rodriguez, Renee Zellweger, Owen Wilson, Marcia Gay Harden, Sanya Richards-Ross, Sam Rayburn, James Baker, Kay Bailey Hutchison, Jim Allison, Rex Tillerson, Bill Moyers and Walter Cronkite, as well as current Texas Governor Greg Abbott.

University Leadership

Jay Hartzell is the 30th President of The University of Texas at Austin. He holds the Trammell Crow Regents Professorship in Business. Prior to serving as president, Hartzell served as the 12^th dean of the McCombs School of Business at UT Austin, one of the largest and most distinguished business schools in the country. As dean for over four years, Hartzell launched the Goff Real Estate Labs, elevated the Canfield Business Honors program, and opened Rowling Hall, the home of UT’s MBA program. He helped create partnerships with colleges and schools across campus including the Dell Medical School, the College of Fine Arts, the College of Liberal Arts, the College of Natural Sciences and the Moody College of Communication. Hartzell has been a member of the UT Austin faculty since 2001 and also is a Texas Ex.

Sharon L. Wood is executive vice president and provost of UT Austin. As the university’s chief academic officer, she leads strategic planning for the university’s academic mission and ensures academic programs are world-class and aligned with the university’s commitment to excellence and community. Wood previously served as dean of the Cockrell School of Engineering and as the chair of the school’s Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering. She joined the Cockrell School faculty in 1996 and holds the Cockrell Family Chair in Engineering #14.

Located beside the picturesque Hill Country of Central Texas, Austin is the state capital and the 4^th-largest city in Texas, which is among the top-five most diverse states in the nation. As the 11th-largest city in the United States, Austin is a vibrant and rapidly growing economic hub, widely regarded as a friendly, active and innovative community. It is consistently regarded as a national creative center that attracts talented people from across the world.

Austin serves as the corporate headquarters for Fortune 500 companies such as Oracle, Dell, Whole Foods, Tesla and many successful tech startups. Austin also hosts research and development offices for major technology-oriented companies such as Amazon, AMD, Apple and Google, which have established their operations in Austin in large part to draw from the highly-skilled talent the university produces. U.S. News & World Report consistently ranks Austin among its Best Places to Live in America, and Expedia recently ranked it No. 1 in its 21 Super-Cool U.S. Cities list.