At our Hot Seat conversation at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston on 12/14, state Reps. Craig Eiland, D-Galveston, and Larry Taylor, R-Friendswood, discussed cuts to public and higher education and other byproducts of the 82nd Session.

Root's scoop on Rick Perry's working retirement, Aaronson maps poverty in Texas, Aguilar on a voting rights warning shot from the U.S. Attorney General, Galbraith on the disclosure of chemicals used in fracking operations, Grissom on the drop in executions, Hamilton and M. Smith on UT-Austin President Bill Powers' rough year, Murphy and Tan and Dehn on the shortage of psychiatrists and Ramshaw on the federal refusal to exclude operators like Planned Parenthood from family planning programs: The best of our best content from December 12 to 16, 2011.

For students who started but — for whatever reason — haven't been able to finish their college degrees, the University of Texas System is opening a new pathway to completion.

After months of bubbling discontent among professors over the law school’s faculty compensation practices, University of Texas School of Law Dean Larry Sager was forced to resign his position Thursday.

Marc Musick, the University of Texas at Austin’s College of Liberal Arts associate dean of student affairs, makes the case in a new faculty productivity report that his institution provides “an incredible return on investment for the state.”

Despite shrinking state support, University of Texas at Arlington president Jim Spaniolo signaled on Tuesday that his school would not raise tuition in the upcoming 2012-13 academic year. It could be just a temporary respite, however.

Legislators and other concerned groups are preparing for a thorough review of the conflict of interest policies — or lack of policies — that apply to regents of the state’s public university systems.

Hamilton on efforts to boost faculty productivity, Grissom on newly uncovered evidence in an old murder case, Galbraith on a wind-powered construction boom, Dehn unfurls the new Texas Tribune Weekend Insider, Aguilar on this year's record number of deportations, Ramshaw and Tan on budget cuts and cervical cancer screenings, M. Smith on local control over student grades, Root and Ramshaw on Rick Perry's latest debate performance, Philpott on an issue that didn't get its due in that debate and Titus and Murphy on fundraising and spending in congressional races: The best of our best content from October 17 to 21, 2011.

The accreditation of one of the state's medical schools is in jeopardy, according to a memo from Francisco González-Scarano, dean of the University of Texas School of Medicine in San Antonio, sent to faculty and staff today.

Thomas Lindsay, recently selected to head the Texas Public Policy Foundation’s Center for Higher Education, attributes the state's growing awareness of higher education to the discussion begun by the TPPF.

Researchers in Dallas hope their clinical tests will improve care for soldiers in the Middle East and even for construction workers, firefighters and other outdoor workers who sustain bleeding injuries in the Texas summer heat.

Why do Texas colleges hire former lawmakers to run the show? It's because the key trait for a new chancellor is the ability to attract money, both from donors and from the Legislature.

At today's hearing of the Joint Oversight Committee on Higher Education Governance, Excellence and Transparency, experts weighed in on how — and how not — to make universities in Texas more accountable and transparent.

In a much-anticipated speech this afternoon to the Real Estate Council of Austin, state Sen. Kirk Watson, D-Austin, outlined his plan for the development of a medical school in Austin. "This is the moment," he said.

University of Texas President Bill Powers isn't mincing words in his State of the University address. He takes head-on the controversy that has dogged the state's higher education community for several months.

The fourth president of the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center on federal health care reform, the difficult budget pressures on his institution and others, the critical importance of academic research and the timeline for finding a cure for cancer.

When UT System Chancellor Francisco Cigarroa unveiled his action plan last week, it was national news. Not so when Brian McCall, chancellor of the Texas State University System, did the exact same thing — a week earlier.

Tan on coming prison school cuts and online sales taxes, Root on Rick Perry's support for tax increases when he was a lawmaker, Ramshaw and Serafini on what "Perrycare" would entail, yours truly on the differences between Perry and George W. Bush, Philpott on the passions of the Paulites, Murphy and Seger unveil the Trib's Texas Public Schools Database, Hamilton on UT's answer to calls for improvements in higher ed, Galbraith on predictions that the record heat in Texas will be a long-term problem and Aguilar on the legal shootout over gun sales in Texas: The best of our best content from Aug. 22 to 26, 2011.