"One Goal, One Research Excellence Fund"
Is the UH System's Number One Legislative Priority for 2003
The nation's current economic situation underscores the necessity for a strong Texas economy, one that is driven by scientific and technological innovations discovered and developed by our public research universities.
In addition to the development and commercialization of new technologies and the creation of spin-off companies, our universities educate the highly skilled workforce needed to run our businesses and corporations.
Texas, however, does not have the research base to sustain economic growth. Texas is second in the nation in the categories of population and the amount of tax dollars going to the federal government, but we rank only sixth in terms of federal research dollars returning to Texas.
In 2001, the 77th Texas Legislature took a bold and visionary step toward the goal of securing the state's future economic strength and competitiveness with the adoption of HB 1839, which, for the first time in the history of our state, established excellence funding for universities outside the Permanent University Fund (which benefits the University of Texas System and the Texas A&M System universities). Most of the creation of this funding recognized the need for Texas to develop and support additional nationally comprehensive public research universities besides UT-Austin and Texas A&M University-College Station.
The joint interim committee established by HB 1839 provides the Texas Legislature the opportunity to revisit and recommend revisions of the legislation, whose original intent was to enhance funding for those institutions with a proven track record of attracting federal research funds, and provide them with the critically needed infrastructure to compete on a national level. This intent, however, was lost by the creation of separate, but unequal funds that include allocation formulas that are cumbersome, at best.
Each fund established by the Legislature--the Texas Excellence Fund for HEF institutions (including the four UH System universities) and the University Research Fund for PUF institutions--will receive nearly $34.8 million during the current biennium.
Although the two funds are equal in the amount of dollars received, they are unequal in all other categories.
Enrollment in HEF institutions is three times greater than that at PUF institutions, which means that PUF institutions receive three times more funding per student ($396 vs $138). Additionally, HEF institutions earn twice as much competitive research funding, yet PUF institutions receive funding equivalent to an average of nearly 70 percent of their research compared to only 40 percent for HEF institutions.
Dramatic examples of the unequal distribution are found at the institution level, where funding per student is $369 at the University of Houston and $783 at UT-Dallas, and funding as a percent of research at Texas Tech is 44 percent while at UT-Arlington it is 134 percent. Both the University of Houston and Tech are HEF institutions.
Texas legislators have recognized the necessity of excellence funding. It is now important to acknowledge the merits of establishing a single fund with meaningful criteria and verifiable data, at that is the University of Houston System's top priority during the 78th Legislature.
