The UTD Mercury

illustration by Lee Brown information from UTD President David Daniel's presentation to the Texas Senate, July 2008 [Click to enlarge]

Editor's Note: This is the first in a multi-part series examining the state of higher education in Texas and the goal of, and roadblocks to, creating more Tier One institutions in the state.

The future of higher education in Texas has become a major point of focus for legislators, commentators and educators for the next session of the Texas Legislature.

Across the state, from opinion pieces in The Dallas Morning News and other major Texas newspapers, to the presidents of Texas' emerging research universities - including UTD President David Daniel - people are pushing for greater dedication to education.

Specifically, the major push is for increasing the number of schools in Texas classified as Tier One institutions.

In late July, representatives from each of Texas' emerging research universities went before the Texas Senate to present their cases for greater support for their universities.

Daniel listed Texas Tech, the University of Houston, UNT, UT Arlington, UTD, UT El Paso and UT San Antonio as the emerging research universities in Texas.

Daniel laid out a plan he said would help adequately fund these universities without forcing the legislature to make the politically difficult decision to pick one or two universities to fund over the others.

Daniel's presentation gave three definitions for considering what makes a school Tier One. Membership in the Association of American Universities (AAU), annual research expenditures of at least $100 million, and a university's ranking in U.S. News and World Report.

UTD isn't in the AAU. According to a legislative study group (LSG) analysis and recommendation on the state of higher education in Texas, UTD only has a $43 million research budget. UTD isn't listed among the top 50 universities in the U.S. News and World Report rankings.

Other criteria include the number of faculty with membership in the national academies of science, engineering, medicine and engineering as well as the size of the university's endowments. In all of these categories, UTD falls short of Tier One status.

But UTD isn't alone in not meeting these criteria. Only two public universities in Texas do, UT-Austin and Texas A&M.

That's where people are saying the problem lies.

The LSG's report, published in June 2008, said pushing for more Tier One schools would be vital to helping Texas maintain a competitive edge in an information economy. It points out how California's investment in higher education was a huge part of the reason Silicon Valley is where it is.

An article by Mitchell Schnurman of the Ft. Worth Star-Telegram points to the lack of Tier One institutions as major cause of crowding at UT-Austin and Texas A&M, and points to the difficulties freshmen not graduating in the top 10 percent of their class may face in getting admittance.

A Dallas Morning News editorial points out Dallas-Ft. Worth is the largest metropolitan area in the United States without a Tier One school.

The LSG report points out the discrepancy between Texas' population and its number of Tier One schools compared to other states.

According to the report, Texas has 23 million people and only two public Tier One universities. California has 10 Tier One schools for 36 million people. That's one Tier One university per 11 million people in people in Texas.

Virginia has three Tier One institutions and a population of 7 million.

The LSG report listed tuition deregulation as one of the major causes for Texas' falling behind in educational quality and affordability. It said the 2003 passage of deregulation marked the end of accountability, affordability and accessibility in Texas higher education.

Daniel said deregulation was necessary in order for Texas universities to have the flexibility to respond rising costs of maintaining universities.

His report listed discrepancies between state appropriations in Texas versus other states as one of the major issues holding Texas schools back.

He also said the ratio of professors to students in Texas universities was low compared to other states, which creates roadblocks to professors doing the kinds of research necessary to gain admittance to the national academies.

The plan Daniel presented at the hearing called for the creation of a pool of funds to be used to match funds raised by Texas universities. Universities that excelled at creating partnerships with local businesses and communities would differentiate themselves from the pack and rise in status.

Future installments of this series will focus on individual parts of Daniel's plan, and the challenges UTD must overcome to achieve Tier One status.

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