Cougar News Staff
The University of Houston's Health Law and Policy institute was ranked number one again in this year's U.S. News and World Report guide to graduate schools.
U.S. News ranked St. Louis University and Loyola University-Chicago second and third, respectively.
"The health law program at the University of Houston is unique because it works closely with many of the other academic and health institutions in the region, state and nation," said Mark Rothstein, law professor and director of the institute.
"It therefore provides our students, health law practitioners, health professionals and the community ... with cutting-edge issues on health law, policy and ethics."
The health law program began in 1978, and Rothstein has been director since 1986.
The UH law school was ranked 50th overall, out of all the law schools in the country. The University of Texas-Austin was 29th.
The intellectual property law department was ranked number six in the nation, with UT-Austin at number eight.
The UH international law program was ranked number 18 along with the University of Chicago, the Universtiy of Denver and Vanderbilt University.
The UT-Austin tax law program is sixth in the nation.
The rankings are compiled based on five components. The reputation of the school accounts for 40 percent of the rank. The reputations were determined by surveys of deans and law professors as well as practicing lawyers, law partners and senior judges.
The selectivity of the institutions was 25 percent of each score, determined by the Law School Admissions Test scores and undergraduate grade-point averages.
Placement success, number of students passing the state bar exams and faculty resources were the other factors used in determining law school scores.
The survey also ranked dispute resolution programs and environmental law, plus other graduate programs including business schools, medical programs including nursing and administration, engineering schools and education programs.