The University of Texas System has served Texas for more than 135 years, improving the lives of Texans—and people all over the world—through education, health care and research at 13 academic and health institutions across the state. With an enrollment of almost 243,000 students and an operating budget of $23.4 billion, the UT System is one of the nation’s largest public university systems of higher education.
UT institutions are powerful drivers of economic and social mobility in Texas, producing more than 67,000 degrees annually, including more than one-third of the state’s bachelor’s degrees and more than half of the state’s medical degrees. Almost half of all undergraduate degrees were awarded to students who qualified for a Pell grant based on financial need while enrolled at a UT institution. Sixty percent of undergraduates who received need-based financial aid double their parents’ income within five years of earning a UT degree.
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. In fact, UT students who entered the Texas workforce between 2002 and 2017 had cumulative earnings through 2018 of $268 billion. And, according to Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce, a UT degree’s return on investment is among the best in the nation.
The UT System also is one of the largest employers in the state with 22,000 faculty – including Nobel laureates and members of National Academies – and 93,000 health care professionals, researchers and staff.
Creating a healthier Texas is a fundamental mission of UT institutions, which award more than 15,000 health-related degrees annually. The UT System is poised to open its seventh medical school in Tyler in 2023. UT-owned and affiliated hospitals and clinics – supported by thousands of doctors, physician assistants, nurses and other health care providers – accounted for more than 10.6 million outpatient visits and over 2 million hospital days in 2021.
In addition to world-class patient care, UT researchers are on the front lines of advancing treatments and therapies for deadly and debilitating diseases. Life-changing and life-saving research and invention of new technologies regularly place UT institutions among the top 10 world’s most innovative universities, according to Reuters and the National Academy of Inventors. Total research spending across the 13 UT institutions exceeds $3.5 billion, and the UT System is No. 1 in Texas and No. 2 in the nation in federal research expenditures among public higher education systems.
With the Texas population expected to grow dramatically in the years to come, the UT System will continue to lead in driving prosperity and health for the people of the Lone Star State.
