For nearly 140 years, The University of Texas System (the “U. T. System”) has improved the lives of Texans and people all over the world through education, research, and health care.
The U. T. System is one of the nation’s largest public university systems of higher education, with 14 institutions that educate more than 243,000 students. Each year, U. T. System institutions award more than 64,000 degrees including more than one-third of all undergraduate degrees in Texas and more than 60 percent of the State’s medical degrees. Almost half of all undergraduate degrees are awarded to students who qualified for a Pell grant based on financial need while enrolled at a U. T. System institution. More than three-fourths of undergraduate students secure jobs in Texas within a year after graduation, providing a skilled workforce and fueling the state’s economy. The U. T. System is one of the largest employers in the state with more than 116,000 faculty, health care professionals, researchers, support staff and student workers.
Transformational initiatives implemented over the past several years have cemented U. T. as a national leader in higher education, including the expansion of educational opportunities in South Texas with the opening of U. T. Rio Grande Valley and its medical school in 2015 and the combining of U. T. Tyler and U. T. Health Science Center – Tyler in 2020 and the opening of its medical school this fall. On September 1, 2023, the Board of Regents welcomes Stephen F. Austin State University as the 14th U. T. System institution following approval by the 88th Texas Legislature.
Creating a healthier Texas is a fundamental mission of U. T. institutions. Collectively, U. T. owned and affiliated hospitals and clinics accounted for more than 10 million outpatient visits and more than 2 million hospital days each year. The U. T. System is poised to open its seventh medical school in Tyler in 2023.
In addition to world-class patient care, U. T. researchers are on the front lines of advancing treatments and therapies for deadly and debilitating diseases. Total annual research expenditures in FY 2022 across the U. T. institutions exceeds $3.8 billion, and the U. T. System is No. 1 in Texas and No. 2 in the nation in federal research expenditures among public higher education systems.
For FY 2024, changes in the operating budget are largely driven by growth in health care activities primarily related to hospital patient income and professional fees charged by U. T. faculty physicians and contractual arrangements with affiliated hospitals and health care systems. In addition, the success U. T. institutions experienced from the Texas Legislature’s 88th regular session with a $1 billion increase in new state funding over the next biennium. The new funding is for both operational and capital expenditures. A significant portion of this success pertained to an affordability proposal introduced by the state’s six largest public systems that would allow institutions to freeze in-state, undergraduate tuition and mandatory fees for the next two years. The proposal included an increase to the formulas supporting instruction, operations and research, additional funding for smaller institutions, funding to help manage the cost for tuition and fee exemptions for the dependents of veterans and bringing higher education group insurance into alignment with other state health programs. The FY 2024 budget also reflects the addition of Stephen F. Austin State University as a new U. T. System institution.
