Houston is the best city for studying entrepreneurship in 2020, according to a report released Tuesday by the Princeton Review and Entrepreneur magazine.

The University of Houston is the best undergraduate school for entrepreneurship studies in North America, and Rice University is the best graduate school. This is the first year both schools have received the No. 1 spot, a welcome announcement as the city strives to build an innovation hub that both nurtures and attracts high-tech startups.

“I think it is so deeply justified that both schools made it into the superlative spot for the 2020 year," said Rob Franek, editor in chief at the Princeton Review. "They are both doing such exceptional work with their students.”

Read the full article at HoustonChronicle.com

Both schools were among the top programs in 2019, with UH ranking No. 2 and Rice ranking No. 3, and UH previously ranked No. 1 for undergraduate schools in 2008, 2011, 2012 and 2013.

Contributing to UH's No. 1 ranking in 2020 is its large mentor pool of 400-plus entrepreneurs to assist students, its robust scholarship program and the university's diversity, Franek said.

He said Rice was bumped to the top spot thanks to its $100 million investment to build an innovation hub in Midtown, its interdisciplinary approach to entrepreneurship, its continued success with the Rice Business Plan Competition (dubbed the world's richest and largest student startup competition) and opening the Liu Idea Lab for Innovation and Entrepreneurship in 2016 for co-working, experiential classes and community-wide events.

Students and graduates of the UH Cyvia and Melvyn Wolff Center for Entrepreneurship have started more than 1,200 businesses over the past 10 years and raised $268 million in identified funding. Rice entrepreneurship alumni have started 535 companies that raised more than $7 billion in funding during that same period.

The latest from Rice: Master plan for Ion and Innovation District at former Midtown Sears site revealed

Overall, 59 schools made one or both of the lists. Nearly all of the schools are in the U.S. Tecnológico de Monterrey is the only school located in Mexico. Below is the top 15 schools for undergraduate and graduate programs.

The Princeton Review's top 15 undergraduate schools for entrepreneurship studies:

University of Houston Babson College (Massachusetts) Brigham Young University (Utah) The University of Michigan Baylor University Washington University in St. Louis University of Maryland Tecnológico de Monterrey (Mexico) Northeastern University (Massachusetts) North Carolina State University Miami University (Ohio) University of Utah The University of Texas at Dallas The University of Texas at Austin Texas Christian University

The Princeton Review's top 15 graduate schools for entrepreneurship studies:

Rice University The University of Chicago Northwestern University (Illinois) Babson College (Massachusetts) University of Michigan University of Virginia Columbia University (New York) The University of South Florida University of Rochester (New York) Northeastern University (Massachusetts) The University of Texas at Austin Brigham Young University (Utah) University of Washington Syracuse University (New York) The University of Texas at Dallas

Rankings in the 14th annual report was created by surveying administrators at more than 300 schools with entrepreneurship studies. The survey, completed between June and August, included questions on the percent of faculty, students and alumni actively involved in entrepreneurial endeavors; the number and reach of mentorship programs, scholarships and grants for entrepreneurial studies and the level of support for school-sponsored business plan competitions.