A bill that would allow seven state universities to compete for tier-one research university status cleared the House and Senate on Sunday and is awaiting approval from Gov. Rick Perry.
Authored by state Rep. Dan Branch, R-Dallas, the bill would create three funding initiatives and establish monetary incentives for emerging research universities to achieve national recognition as major research institutions. The seven universities vying for funds are the University of Texas campuses in Arlington, Dallas, El Paso and San Antonio, along with the University of North Texas, the University of Houston and Texas Tech University.
Branch said that even with only three tier-one institutions, Texas has led the nation in population growth and job creation, but needs to establish more if it wants to continue its strong economic growth.
“Businesses want to establish themselves around large universities,” Branch said. “[Having more] research universities will really help drive innovation and bring in a lot of intellectual capital.”
While there is no absolute definition of a tier-one university, the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching describes tier-one status as having membership in the American Association of Universities, while receiving at least $100 million in federal research grants annually. The size of endowments, the quality of faculty and selective admission procedures are also considered.
Texas currently has three tier-one universities: UT, Texas A&M University and Rice University. California and New York — comparable states in terms of population and economic activity — have nine and seven tier-one universities, respectively.
“There is no question that Texas needs additional tier-one universities,” said David Gabler, a UT-San Antonio spokesman. “Many high-achieving students leave Texas each year. We need to make sure our state provides the opportunities to educate those students.”
UT-Dallas spokeswoman Susan Rogers said the school intends to be tier-one.
“We have stepped up private funding and our research expenditures have doubled in the last four years,” Rogers said. “[This bill] gives us more reason to work even harder to bring up our research profile.”
James Spaniolo, the president of UT-Arlington, said in a statement that Texas’ commitment toward creating more tier-one universities will allow university researchers to develop technologies for the new economy.
“We are extremely grateful for the Legislature’s commitment toward paving the way for more Texas universities to achieve tier-one status,” he said. “This is a long process — not something that happens overnight. We look forward to earning our way to tier-one status and receiving matching funds from the state will help make that goal more attainable.”
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