Texas Border Business
By Gail Fagan
RIO GRANDE VALLEY, TEXAS – MARCH 3, 2016 – The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley’s fall 2015 enrollment of 28,584 students makes it the ninth-largest four-year public university in Texas, and the fourth-largest within The University of Texas System.
The enrollment figures, made available from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board’s Fall 2015 Online Accountability System, also shows that UTRGV ranks No. 1 in total Hispanic enrollment among all four-year, public higher education institutions in Texas.
“These numbers are a good indication that the creation of UTRGV was good for the region,” said Susan Brown, assistant vice president for UTRGV Office of Strategic Analysis and Institutional Reporting and the former assistant commissioner for Strategic Planning and Funding for the THECB. “We are hoping that these numbers will continue to increase as we expand opportunities and more students understand that they can get a first-rate education in the Valley.”
Texas A&M University ranked No. 1 in total enrollment among Texas’ four-year public universities, with 58,515 students. Table 1 (below) lists other schools in the top 10 for fall 2015.
TABLE 1: Total headcount enrollment among all Texas 4-year public universities
| Rank | Institution | Enrollment Fall 2015 |
| 1 | Texas A&M University | 58,515 |
| 2 | The University of Texas at Austin | 50,950 |
| 3 | University of Houston | 42,704 |
| 4 | Texas State University | 37,979 |
| 5 | University of North Texas | 37,175 |
| 6 | The University of Texas at Arlington | 37,008 |
| 7 | Texas Tech University | 35,546 |
| 8 | The University of Texas at San Antonio | 28,787 |
| 9 | The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley | 28,584 |
| 10 | The University of Texas at Dallas | 24,554 |
Source: Fall 2015, Online Accountability System, Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, Austin, TX.
Within the UT System, UTRGV’s enrollment was behind only three other academic institutions – The University of Texas at Austin, The University of Arlington, and The University of Texas at San Antonio.
Table 2 lists the rankings of the fall 2015 total headcount enrollment within the UT System.
TABLE 2: Total headcount enrollment of UT System Academic Institutions
| Rank | Institution | Enrollment 2015 |
| 1 | The University of Texas at Austin | 50,950 |
| 2 | The University of Texas at Arlington | 37,008 |
| 3 | The University of Texas at San Antonio | 28,787 |
| 4 | The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley | 28,584 |
| 5 | The University of Texas at Dallas | 24,554 |
| 6 | The University of Texas at El Paso | 23,308 |
| 7 | The University of Texas at Tyler | 8,500 |
| 8 | The University of Texas of the Permian Basin | 5,937 |
Source: Fall 2015, Online Accountability System, Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, Austin, TX.
Of the 28,584 students enrolled at UTRGV in fall 2015, 25,382 (89 percent) were Hispanic, topping second-ranked UT-El Paso, where 18,624 of its 23,308 students enrolled in fall 2015 were Hispanic.
Statewide, the total enrollment of students for all four-year institutions of higher education in Texas was 619,284 – with 192,712 (31 percent) of them identified as Hispanic.
UTRGV Founding President Guy Bailey said the new university’s enrollment growth is a reflection of the value the Rio Grande Valley community places on learning and on higher education.
“We have so many talented students here, and as UTRGV provides increasing opportunities through additional academic programs and disciplines, we are confident our already substantial enrollment numbers will continue to grow. We are committed to developing a region-wide plan that will drive our success.”
UTRGV’s founding Strategic Plan will focus on four core priorities: student success, educational opportunity, research on issues important to the Rio Grande Valley, and medical education.
