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 over $750-million National Research University Fund. This achievement enhances UT-Arlington’s ability to offer students an education of the first class that families from all walks of life can afford.

Texas is home to a growing herd of newly branded and up-and-coming Tier One universities. UT-Dallas, Texas Tech University and the University of Houston also each met the rigorous performance goals to receive the Texas Tier One designation and attain NRUF funding. UT-San Antonio is projected to reach Texas Tier One status and gain access to NRUF as soon as 2022.

To qualify for Tier One status, a university must meet the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board’s quality standards for two consecutive years. The standards include the number of doctoral degrees awarded, size of endowment, amount of research funding awarded and some requirements that are less measurable, such as a freshman class with high academic achievement.

The University of North Texas, UT-El Paso and Texas State University are making impressive strides, too. Both received the prestigious Carnegie Tier One classification. And Texas State’s research endowment — a key milestone in the journey to Texas Tier One status — more than doubled since 2013, from $113 million to over $225 million.

Southern Methodist University is a standout among our state’s rising private universities. From Tier Three in 2005, the Mustangs galloped past 55 universities to reach Tier Two by 2018. This year, SMU announced that reaching Tier One is “an achievable 10-year goal.”

The rapid rise of Texas Tier Ones is the result of a strongly bipartisan solution to what had been one of our state’s most vexing growth challenges: For years, Texas was home to only three Tier One universities (UT-Austin, Texas A&M and Rice) and trailed large-state competitors like California.

Too few Tier Ones in Texas, due to regional competitiveness and politics, imposed high costs for students, families and businesses. Many of our brightest young people were leaving Texas for greener academic pastures. Businesses reported shortages of highly educated workers.

Firms also missed out on innovations that Tier Ones incubate and that entrepreneurs and investors take to market. In the competition for research grants worth billions, too few Tier Ones resulted in Texas losing out to smaller states like Massachusetts and Maryland. And over a decade ago, a point that hit close to home: Dallas-Fort Worth was our nation’s most populous region without a Tier One university.

In 2009, leaders from both parties in the Texas Legislature brokered a landmark solution. House Bill 51 cast a vision for increasing Texas Tier Ones, set specific, measurable and achievable goals, and created two funds, NRUF and the Texas Research Incentive Program, that would help drive universities toward the Tier One destination.

Since 2009, universities have received $173 million from 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 students educated and universities elevated: This fall, over 268,000 students, a 230% increase from 2009, will enroll in nine Tier One universities in Texas.

Bipartisanship 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. On the final vote, House Bill 51 passed 141-4 in the House and 31-0 in the Senate. Even the opposition was bipartisan: two Republicans and two Democrats.

Broad support wasn’t a foregone conclusion. The 2009 session was a time of intense partisanship. The Texas House was narrowly divided (76 Republicans, 74 Democrats). Both parties were jockeying for position in advance of redistricting. The Texas governor had his eyes on the White House. The frustrating memory of Democrats’ 2003 quorum break had not faded from the minds of Republican leaders.

Intraparty extremists attempted to pull apart bipartisan dealmakers. Zealots on the left and far right demanded that lawmakers prioritize their fringe issues over our state’s future. For these ideologues, compromise was a four-letter word. Their threats weren’t idle: Legislators who bucked the bullies in their own parties were targeted in subsequent primary elections.

To pass House Bill 51, mainstream leaders focused on the common cause of increasing Texas Tier Ones and had the courage to reach across the aisle to find common ground. Together, solutions-oriented lawmakers in the Texas Capitol planted a tree, and as UT-Arlington’s impressive growth indicates, Texans are enjoying the fruit.

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

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