Establishing an Environment That Promotes Excellence
Recommendation 1:
Reduce the undergraduate student-faculty ratio to 16:1 within a decade, with no college having a ratio greater than 17:1.
The quality of education the Commission seeks for UT students can be achieved only if there is a direct and meaningful engagement between students and professors. Such engagement is essential if we are to prepare students for an increasingly complex world. The student/faculty ratio is an important and traditional measure of a quality undergraduate education.
The University’s current student-faculty ratio is 21:1, whereas the nation’s top public universities have an average ratio of 17:1.
Student-Faculty Ratio: 2002–2003
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor 13/1
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill 16/1
University of Virginia 16/1
University of Wisconsin, Madison 16/1
University of California, Berkeley 17/1
University of California, Los Angeles 21/1 (01–02)
University of Illinois, Urbana/Champaign 21/1
The University of Texas 21/1
Decreasing the student-faculty ratio will require reducing enrollment while also expanding the faculty. But the latter objective must not undermine The University’s commitment to recruit and hire new tenure-track professors of the highest quality.
Recommendation 2:
The quality of the educational experience must be the primary factor in determining the size of the student body.
The administration should develop a model to determine the optimal size of the student body using factors such as student-faculty ratio, percentage of semester credit hours taught by tenured or tenure-track faculty, class size, and available facilities and financial resources.
Quality of education must be the first priority. To serve the largest number of students, consistent with this priority, The University must improve graduation rates and degree-completion times. Bachelor’s degrees should be completed in four years unless otherwise required by the degree plan or by extenuating circumstances.
The present size of The University is an impediment to delivering an educational experience of the highest quality. Forty years ago, the undergraduate and graduate enrollment was 22,385 students. By fall 2003 it had expanded to 51,426, a gain of 130 percent. Meanwhile, the four-year graduation rate for undergraduates in 2003 was just 41.7 percent. Among a peer group of the top public universities, UT and the University of Wisconsin have the lowest four-year graduation rates.
Four-Year Graduation Rates (2003)
University of Virginia 83.0%
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill 70.5%
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor 69.5%
University of Illinois, Urbana/Champaign 59.1%
University of California, Berkeley 58.3%
University of California, Los Angeles 54.6%
The University of Texas 41.7%
University of Wisconsin, Madison 41.7%
UT’s low four-year graduation rate is explained in part by the light course loads undertaken by many of our students. They take, on average, just 13.1 semester hours, which is unacceptable. The average should be at least 15 semester hours in order for students to make timely progress toward their degrees.
If the average undergraduate course load increases and more faculty are hired to reduce the student-faculty ratio, the Commission believes that the total enrollment should stabilize at approximately 48,000.
Recommendation 3:
The University must aggressively recruit and enroll outstanding students representing the diverse regions and populations of Texas and beyond.
In all its recruiting, admissions, and hiring, The University must base decisions on its vision to create a disciplined culture of excellence while building a community that reflects the face of Texas.
A separate office for recruiting students should be established. No single factor should be used for admission. Rather, a holistic approach should be used for the admission of all undergraduate applicants. Factors should include SAT or ACT scores, class rank, socioeconomic
background, race, high school curriculum, extracurricular activities, leadership, community service, honors and awards, work experience, special talents, geography, and extenuating circumstances.
The University should exercise primary control over admissions and efforts to ensure diversity. The Legislature should not adopt or retain any legislation that impedes UT’s ability to use a holistic approach to admissions. To recruit the best, The University must expand its financial aid program. No qualified student should be prevented from attending The University for financial reasons.
Recommendation 4:
Libraries, museums, and information technology resources at The University of Texas must rank with those of the best universities in the world.
The University’s various collections contain significant components of the world’s cultural, intellectual, and artistic record. These treasures must be preserved, organized, and enhanced to support scholarship and education within and beyond the campus. We must continue this tradition by acquiring new materials to advance scholarly research and public access. Our treasures possess great potential to foster awareness of UT, especially via technology, which allows our collections to be shared in innovative educational experiences on campus and throughout Texas and the world at large.
Libraries are fundamental to teaching, learning, and research. As the result of decades of commitment and effort, our libraries are among the very best. Certain areas within our libraries, museums, and information technology systems are already of the first rank. The challenge is not merely to retain this status in the outstanding collections, but to elevate all significant UT collections to that standard.
The Commission recommends a consistent and aggressive program for the maintenance and improvement of UT’s libraries and museums. However, collections that are weak or no longer relevant may need to be phased out.
In a world increasingly dependent upon innovative information systems, it will be impossible to reach these goals unless The University maintains its leadership in information technology. A world-class information technology system is an indispensable goal in itself, but in terms of access to and management of UT’s libraries and museums, it is an absolute imperative. A recognized leader in digital libraries and administrative systems, UT is ideally positioned to develop the technology systems required of a great 21st-century university.