UNIVERSITY EXCELLENCE FUND PROPOSAL FACT SHEET

• Texas presently has only two public Tier One institutions: UT Austin and Texas A&M University College Station. Rice University is also a Tier One institution but is not supported by state funds.

• California and New York have more public Tier One institutions than Texas; California has nine while New York has seven. Texas has nearly five million more inhabitants than New York, and less than half as many public Tier One universities.

• The University Excellence Fund would replace the Texas Research Incentive Program (TRIF), which was created by Senate Bill 51, as passed by the 81st Texas Legislature. TRIF is the program which set aside $50 million in “matching funds” for universities competing for Tier One status.

• With Texas Tech University’s announcement last week that it had raised more than $20 million dollars in funds eligible for TRIF match, nearly half of the appropriated matching funds are already depleted—and the state is less than 15 days into a new budget cycle. That money can’t be replaced until the Legislature convenes in January, 2011.

• In addition to Texas Tech’s announcement, several other Emerging Research Universities announced significant fundraising totals eligible for TRIF matching funds: University of Texas at Dallas, $16.8 million; University of North Texas, $1.7 million; University of Texas at Arlington, $1.1 million; University of Houston, $4.7 million; University of Texas at San Antonio, $2.8 million; University of Texas at El Paso, $3 million. The total of all funds eligible for TRIP matching (including Tech) as of September 1 is approximately $50.1 million dollars.

• Nationally, Tier One universities typically spend a minimum of $150 million per year on research, and award at least 100 doctorates in a minimum of 15 disciplines annually.

• Of Texas’ two public Tier One institutions, the University of Texas at Austin spends approximately $500 million annually on research; Texas A&M University spends approximately $570 million on research annually.

• The University Excellence Fund Plan would require a constitutional amendment to mandate that a minimum of $500 million per biennium be set aside for research at the Emerging Research Universities in a manner similar to the mechanism by which other higher education funds have been allocated.

• The plan would last for ten years and automatically sunset unless additional universities have qualified for Emerging Research University Status and voters reauthorize the measure.

• $500 million is roughly 2.97 percent of the state’s total budget of $168 billion for the 2008-2009 biennium just concluded.

• Additional funding from new revenue or reallocated revenue could include reallocation of unencumbered and Texas Lottery revenue which is typically funneled into general revenue (the Lottery Commission reports that as roughly one percent of all lottery revenue); the reallocation of some existing state taxes and fees; the creation of new revenue such as a surcharge on parking violations issued at Texas colleges and universities or a $1 to $5 fee per student per semester paid by college and university students.

Download a Copy of Hank’s Plan to Create Seven Tier One Universities In Ten Years in PDF format