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Dear Friend of the UT System,
Students are at the heart of all we do. Their ultimate success is the focus of some important news I want to share with you, as well as the theme of this year’s Chancellor’s Council Annual Meeting and Symposium, which is just three and a half weeks away. If you didn’t get an invitation in the mail or haven’t responded yet, I encourage you to use this link to register online: advancing.utsystem.edu/ccam2018. We will be focused on “Reimagining the Path to Student Success” and I hope you’ll consider joining us!
We all want students to have the best possible educational experience, which means we must provide institutions with the resources they need to enhance student success opportunities and recruit and retain top faculty. That’s why the Board of Regents recently approved two-year tuition increases submitted by all eight academic institutions. The Board also authorized five-year tuition plans for the six UT health science institutions.
We understand the potential burden tuition increases create for hard-working students and families. We want to ensure that a UT education is within reach for every qualified student. Across the System, UT institutions do a remarkable job of covering significant levels of tuition and fees through grants, scholarships and waivers for the students who need the most support, and we remain committed to ensuring these programs minimize the impact tuition increases will have on students receiving financial assistance.
Even with slightly higher tuition, UT institutions remain a great bargain. For example, UT Austin, the state’s flagship and top-ranked research university, remains more affordable – with lower tuition costs – than a number of other public universities in Texas. I’m also proud to say that tuition for UT health profession programs also is among the lowest in the country. Medical school tuition costs less than two-thirds of the national average for public medical schools, which results in UT medical students graduating with significantly less debt than the national average.
No matter how great the bargain, a post-secondary education is a major investment of time and money. For many years, we have sought to give students and their families tools and information to help them understand the returns they can expect from that investment. Now, thanks to an innovative partnership the UT System has forged with the United States Census Bureau, I’m proud to announce we can offer more comprehensive data about how UT graduates fare than data currently shared by any other university system in the nation. This first-of-its-kind database provides the salary and debt data of UT graduates living and working not just in Texas, but anywhere in the United States. The value of this partnership lies in the ability it directly gives students and families to make informed decisions about their academic and career paths. You can examine the data yourself at seekUT, the UT System’s free online tool, and search by institution and program of study for undergraduate, graduate and professional students one, five and ten years after graduation.
Understanding how to help our students succeed and what that investment in education means to them and to our state is at the core of this year’s Chancellor’s Council Annual Meeting and Symposium. Legendary journalist Tom Brokaw will join me and will moderate the program that features a who’s who of UT experts sharing what their respective institutions are doing to keep students on the path to, and through, college and how that benefits all Texans.
I encourage you to arrive early to attend one of three “Discovery Sessions” before the afternoon Symposium begins. We have sessions focused on how UT is leading the way in addressing some of the nation’s top health concerns, as well as an opportunity to tour a building that is a true work of art. More information about these Discovery Sessions and the Annual Meeting of the Chancellor’s Council can be found in your printed invitation or online.
We owe it to our students to give them the very best chance at success. And we owe the very same thing to generous supporters like you. We know you are counting on us to turn our aspiring young scholars into the college graduates who will propel our state forward in the years to come. I hope you will join me on April 27 to learn more about UT’s efforts to do just that.
As always, thank you for your continued support. It makes a difference to me and to the UT System.
Respectfully,
Bill McRaven
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