UT Arlington is the latest Texas university to reach Tier One status, but it won’t be the last

The University of Texas at Arlington was recently recognized as a Texas Tier One University and gained access to our state’s $ 750 million National Research University Fund. This success enhances UT-Arlington’s ability to provide students with world-class education that families from all walks of life can afford.

Texas is home to a growing herd of newly branded and emerging Tier 1 universities. UT-Dallas, Texas Tech University, and the University of Houston also met stringent performance targets to earn the Texas Tier One award and receive NRUF funding. UT-San Antonio is expected to achieve Texas Tier One status and access to NRUF as early as 2022.

To qualify for Tier One status, a university must meet the quality standards of the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board for two consecutive years. The standards include the number of doctoral degrees awarded, the amount of the foundation, the amount of approved research funding and some less measurable requirements, such as: B. a freshman class with high academic performance.

The University of North Texas, UT-El Paso, and Texas State University are also making impressive progress. Both received the prestigious Carnegie Tier One classification. And Texas state research equipment – a major milestone on the road to Texas Tier One status – has more than doubled since 2013, from $ 113 million to over $ 225 million.

Southern Methodist University is a prominent among the emerging private universities in our state. From tier three in 2005, the Mustangs galloped past 55 universities to reach tier two by 2018. This year, the SMU announced that reaching Tier One is “an achievable 10-year goal”.

The rapid rise of the Texas Tier Ones is the result of a heavily bipartisan solution to one of the state’s most annoying growth challenges: Texas had only three Tier 1 universities (UT-Austin, Texas A&M, and Rice) for years. and followed major state competitors like California.

Too few Tier Ones in Texas were costly to students, families, and businesses due to regional competitiveness and politics. Many of our brightest young people left Texas for greener academic pastures. Companies reported a shortage of well-trained workers.

Companies also missed innovations that incubate tier ones and that bring entrepreneurs and investors to market. In the competition for multi-billion dollar research grants, too few animal ones resulted in Texas losing to smaller states like Massachusetts and Maryland. And over a decade ago, one point was very close: Dallas-Fort Worth was the most populous region in our country without a Tier 1 university.

In 2009, leaders of both parties brokered a landmark solution for the Texas legislature. House Bill 51 formulated a vision to increase Texas Tier Ones, set specific, measurable, and achievable goals, and created two funds, NRUF and the Texas Research Incentive Program, that would help guide universities toward the Tier 1 goal.

As of 2009, universities have received $ 173 million from the NRUF. TRIP, the public-private matching program, has used $ 394 million in state tax dollars to attract $ 821 million in private gifts.

Most important are the educated students and the higher education institutions: over 268,000 students will enroll in nine Tier 1 universities in Texas this fall, up 230% from 2009.

Bipartisanism was essential to the passage of House Bill 51. A House Republican and a Senate Democrat were its authors, and members of both parties were co-authors. In the final vote, House Bill 51 passed 141-4 in the House of Representatives and 31-0 in the Senate. Even the opposition was non-partisan: two Republicans and two Democrats.

Broad support was not a matter of course. The 2009 meeting was a time of intense partisanship. The Texas house was divided (76 Republicans, 74 Democrats). Both parties fought for position in the run-up to the redistribution. The governor of Texas had his eyes on the White House. The frustrating memory of the Democratic quorum breach in 2003 had not gone from the minds of Republican leaders.

Intra-party extremists tried to break up bipartisan dealmakers. Zealots on the left and right called for lawmakers to put their marginal issues above the future of our state. For these ideologues, compromise was a four-letter word. Their threats have not been idle: lawmakers who opposed the tyrants in their own parties were targeted in the subsequent primaries.

To get House Bill 51 passed, mainstream leaders focused on the common cause of the growing Texas tier ones and had the courage to reach across the aisle to find common ground. Together, solution-minded lawmakers planted a tree in the Texas Capitol, and as the impressive growth of UT-Arlington shows, Texans enjoy the fruit.

Dan Branch is a former Republican member of the Texas House, which represents Dallas, and author of House Bill 51. He wrote this column for the Dallas Morning News.

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