Skip to main content
Topics

Higher education

The latest higher education news from The Texas Tribune.

  • Trading Places

    By Julián Aguilar

    Texas, that famous bastion of conservatism, has become a leading exporter of agricultural products to communist Cuba — second only to Louisiana among the 50 states. Full Story 

    Article thumbnail
    Credit: Jacob Villanueva

  • The Old College Try

    By Brian Thevenot

    Since 1999, the number of "dual-credit" students — those who take college courses while still in high school — across Texas has ballooned from fewer than 12,000 to more than 91,000. It's a trend that's likely to continue as state and local policymakers search for ways to better align curricula and to push more kids to continue their education. “Schools have started to look at it as great for kids who might not have thought they were college material,” says an official at the Higher Education Coordinating Board. “It’s both a gifted-and-talented program and a college-accessibility program.” Full Story 

    Article thumbnail
    Credit: Jacob Villanueva

  • A Better App: Public Employee Pay

    By Matt Stiles and Niran Babalola

    Find the salaries of more than 340,000 public employees with our enhanced data application, including those working at the largest state agencies as well as individual public schools, cities and mass-transit operators. And universities: Did you know, for instance, that of the 10 highest-paid professors at the state's two largest universities, nine are Aggies? Full Story 

    Article thumbnail
    Credit: Caleb Bryant Miller, Jacob Villanueva

  • From Bust to Boom

    By Brian Thevenot

    The recession has caused a spike in enrollment at two-year schools like Austin Community College, which now educates more than 40,000 students — within striking distance of the great behemoth, the University of Texas at Austin. Full Story 

    Article thumbnail
    Credit: Jacob Villanueva

  • TribWeek: In Case You Missed It

    By Evan Smith

    Thevenot on the abysmally low community college graduation rate and higher ed's coming budgetary winter. Ramshaw on Terri Hodge's guilty plea and hasty exit. Grissom on the Department of Public Safety's use of dreaded federal stimulus funds to plug a hole in the state's border security budget. Hu on the first of the intraparty face-offs in our Primary Color series. Ramsey and Stiles on the congressional candidates with the most money on hand. Ramsey on whether Farouk Shami's accent and name are an obstacle to his election. Aguilar on the fever-tick epidemic overwhelming South Texas. Rapoport on TxDOT's hard road and the State Board of Education's lack of finance expertise. Philpott on how Barack Obama's budget will impact Texas. M. Smith on whether lawyers giving to judges is a good thing. Hamilton on the latest transportation innovations on the drawing board. The best of our best from February 1 to 5, 2010. Full Story 

    Article thumbnail

  • Burned Orange

    By Brian Thevenot

    A clash over a beloved campus music club at UT-Austin portends the gnashing of teeth at schools statewide as a budgetary winter threatens to envelop higher education. Full Story 

    Bill Powers speaks about budget cuts at The University of Texas on Tuesday, February 2nd.
    Credit: Jacqueline Mermea

  • A Matter of Degrees

    By Brian Thevenot

    Community colleges pitch themselves as the gateway to prosperity for lower-income students who've been historically shut out of higher education. Trouble is, despite increasing enrollment numbers, few of them graduate. Full Story 

    Article thumbnail
    Credit: Jacob Villanueva

  • Ticked

    By Julián Aguilar

    The worst outbreak of fever-tick infestations in South Texas in four decades has ranchers and animal-health officials scrambling to prevent not just a loss of billions to the state cattle's industry but an outright ban on our cattle. Full Story 

    Article thumbnail

  • No Experience Necessary

    By Abby Rapoport

    Few members of the State Board of Education have finance expertise. Should we be concerned that they manage the investments of the $23 billion Permanent School Fund? Full Story 

    Article thumbnail
    Credit: Jacob Villanueva

  • Paperless Medicine?

    By Emily Ramshaw

    Three challenges stand between Texas and the era of electronic medical records: convincing doctors to use them, figuing out how to safely share and protect them and finding a way to pay for them. Full Story 

    Article thumbnail

  • TribWeek: In Case You Missed It

    By Evan Smith

    Hu explores on the schism between Bushworld and Perrywold and the increasingly curious question of what Debra Medina wants; Stiles goes all Shark Week on gubernatorial campaign finance, with searchable databases, bubble maps and word clouds; M. Smith on what happens if there's a GOP runoff; Rapoport on the sniping between Perry and KBH on transparency; Hamilton on KBH's abortion issue odyssey; Ramshaw exposes the disgracefully low percentage of state school employees who abuse or kill profoundly disabled Texans and are then prosecuted for their acts; Thevenot on higher ed's tuition time bomb; Aguilar on the Latino pay gap; Ramsey on Farouk Shami's "gift" to Hank Gilbert; Ramsey and Philpott on the the Supreme's Court's corporate campaign cash fallout; and E. Smith's interviews with House Speaker Joe Straus with retiring Republican state representative — and future Texas State chancellor? — Brian McCall. The best of our best from January 18 to 22, 2010. Full Story 

    Article thumbnail

  • TribBlog: Paycheck U.

    By Brian Thevenot

    A new study gives a window into the wide variety of ways college presidents get paid. Think houses, cars, deferred comp — and private monies supplementing public funds. Full Story 

    Article thumbnail
    Credit: Jacob Villanueva