Temple University’s rise as one of the nation’s premier urban public research universities has taken another leap forward with the arrival of 57 outstanding new tenured and tenure-track faculty members for the 2014-2015 academic year.

The new recruits build on Temple’s unprecedented momentum. Since 2004, the university has hired about 630 new tenured and tenure-track faculty members—the greatest influx in Temple history. That represents an average of about 57 new tenured and tenure-track faculty hires in each of the past 11 years.

“The quality of a Temple education will always rest, first and foremost, on our outstanding faculty,” Temple President Neil D. Theobald said. “With these top scholars, researchers and creative minds joining the university from the world’s leading institutions, Temple will continue its rise among national institutions of higher education.”

The arrival of the newest faculty members coincides with more good news about Temple’s rankings. The 2015 edition of U.S.News & World Report’s Best Colleges places Temple in a tie for No. 121 overall among national universities. That is Temple’s highest-ever rank and an increase of 11 spots in only four years.

The new faculty members will further strengthen Temple’s reputation. At the same time, Temple’s ascent is part of the reason it has been able to attract so many high-quality faculty members from top institutions.

This year, Temple recruited faculty members from several schools ranked in the top 50 nationally on the U.S. News list, including the University of Pennsylvania, Northwestern University and Pennsylvania State University.

Faculty hiring was especially strong this year in science, technology, engineering and math fields. The College of Science and Technology led the way with 12 new hires, driven in part by the opening of the Science Education and Research Center. The state-of-the-art facility will provide abundant opportunities for exploration and investigation.

Additionally, the Fox School of Business has eight new faculty appointments, the College of Liberal Arts has seven, the School of Medicine has six, and the College of Engineering has five.

According to university leaders, Temple's faculty hiring boom has been made possible by a constellation of factors. Enrollment increases since 2000 have spurred a need for more instructors.

In addition, the retirement of a large number of faculty members hired in the 1960s and '70s—the years following Temple's designation as a state-related institution in the Commonwealth System of Higher Education—has created a number of vacancies.

Several of this year’s new faculty members will chair departments and lead research labs. Some also hope to recruit additional faculty members and assistants to Temple to support their research and scholarship.

Learn more about Temple’s dynamic new faculty members.