In the list of top ranked colleges in the nation, you’ll now find the University of Kentucky’s College of Agriculture among a prestigious top ten.

The 2006-07 Faculty Scholarly Activity Index ranks the college tenth nationally for the broad category of agricultural sciences research.

Even more notable, UK placed fifth in overall plant sciences. For specific agricultural disciplines, UK’s plant pathology program earned fourth, plant physiology earned seventh and entomology was ninth.

“This is an important achievement for our university and for our state,” said Kumble Subbaswamy, UK’s provost. “The fact that so many of our agricultural programs are ranked among the very best in the country is testimony to the quality and dedication of our faculty and the outstanding contribution they make.”

In the top ten ranking overall, the College of Agriculture joins nine of the finest universities and agricultural colleges in the world, including the University of Arizona, Rutgers, University of California - Davis, the University of Wisconsin - Madison, Cornell University, the University of Illinois, the University of Minnesota, Washington State University and Michigan State University (http://www.academicanalytics.com/Top20BC2006-07.html ).

“This national ranking publicly confirms what we’ve known for many years, namely that our faculty can compete with the best in the world,” said Scott Smith, dean of the college. “The caliber and productivity of our research not only places us among the leading agricultural colleges, but advances our land-grant mission in agriculture and life sciences.”

With more than 275 faculty and over 2000 students, the college is known throughout the national land-grant system for its innovative research in livestock & forage systems, equine science, animal health, plant biology, natural products, natural resources, precision agriculture, human environmental sciences and several other areas (http://www.ca.uky.edu ).

This is the not the first time the college’s programs have earned high rankings. Last year the same index ranked UK’s plant pathology and entomology programs in the top ten among large research universities.

The index is created by Academic Analytics, a company owned in part by the State University of New York at Stony Brook. Institutions are categorized as large research universities or small research universities. UK is a large research institution. Faculty productivity is based on several factors, including scholarly publications, federal grant dollars awarded, and honors and awards.