Six classes away from graduation, the Fort Worth resident aims to have a diploma from Tarleton State University displayed in his mother’s house by May, in a spot reserved for it alongside his brother’s and sister’s degrees.
The 40-year-old is not a traditional college student. Alexander dropped out 20 years ago to support his young family. When he was ready to go back to school and classes were offered six minutes from home, Alexander did not think twice.
“Once I found that Tarleton State built a new Fort Worth location, I was like ‘I’m there’,” he said. “It was much more feasible for me to go to Tarleton.”
Tarleton is part of the Texas A&M System and has long served many rural families on its main campus in Stephenville. It is part of a North Texas college boom where systems are pouring in hundreds of millions of dollars to serve additional tens of thousands of students, particularly in the Fort Worth area.
A handful of university systems — including Texas A&M, University of Texas, North Texas, Texas Woman’s and Texas Tech — are broadening their reach in the area through new campuses, buildings or programs aimed at meeting the needs of students and businesses.
Colleges have faced steady enrollment declines since 2010, including a dramatic drop during the pandemic.
This expansion comes at a time when the region has grown to more than 8 million residents and is expected to top 10 million by 2040, according to the Texas Demographic Center.
Students say they want affordable options closer to home while business leaders want to hire recent graduates with specialized skills.
“These institutions are coming in because the labor market data in DFW tells them that there’s an opportunity there,” said Michael Wood, vice president of education and workforce at the Dallas Regional Chamber. “They’re actively exploring how they can create programming that’s aligned with industry needs.”
Colleges and industry officials say they want to ensure schools offer students the skills and degrees necessary to meet workforce needs, especially in healthcare and technology.
“Computer science, software development, and a lot of the programming languages are things that we see a lot in job applications but not as much in candidate resumes,” Wood said.
In a time when only 36% of Americans have significant confidence in higher education, students want careers that will pay off in the future.
Having more options closer to home allows students to pick the programs that meet their needs, especially those who might have family and employment responsibilities.
By opening new sites in North Texas, schools increase enrollment and name recognition even if their main campuses are on the other side of a state, said Tom Harnisch, vice president of government relations at the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association.
“They might not be creating residence halls, but they’re establishing a foothold in an area in order to serve the local economy,” Harnisch said. “The metro area is big and going from one side to the other can be time-consuming. Students want to have options that are close to them and that are high-quality and affordable.”
Alexander left Prairie View A&M University halfway through his studies. Now the father of four is a configuration analyst at Lockheed Martin, but he needs a four-year degree for advancement.
“There’s a glass ceiling for certain jobs,” he said. A bachelor’s degree is a “gateway to higher-paying jobs within the company.”
Alexander’s college journey has gone beyond getting a promotion.
Since he started his business degree, Alexander has been applying everything he learns into his own catering company. Alexander’s Cuisine serves “Southern, comfort foods” like gumbo, smoked chicken and mac n’ cheese.
And he is already thinking of an MBA. “I can’t stop here,” he said. “Your master’s is the new bachelor’s.”
Focus on Fort Worth
Along the Fort Worth skyline, an Aggie flag flies from a construction crane working on a new Texas A&M downtown campus.
City leaders often tout the educational options of Texas Christian University, Texas Wesleyan University and Tarrant County College but some have lamented the lack of a Tier One institution. That coveted classification is given to universities providing doctorate-level programs and producing significant academic research — which can attract talent and lead to innovation.
That’s the gap A&M leaders hope to fill.
Business and school officials envision the new campus as a space for public and private innovation in a range of areas, such as engineering, aerospace, defense, energy, agriculture, transportation, telecommunications and emergency response.
They say they are designing academic and professional development programs to tap the Tier One prestige of the system so the city has a stronger talent pipeline.
“This is no longer where they just throw up different programs and hope students enroll in them,” Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker said. “They’re really trying to meet students not only where they are, but importantly, where they need to be in the future.”
The new campus started when investor John Goff was asked to work on an effort to get the city through the pandemic economically stronger.
He learned Fort Worth was the only large city in the nation without a Tier One university.
“UT already had Arlington, and they had Dallas,” Goff said, noting those schools have the status. “A&M had this land and then the foothold with the law school. And they definitely needed a new law school building, so it only made sense.”
The law school in downtown Fort Worth, originally part of Texas Wesleyan, was purchased by the A&M System in 2013.
Goff met with A&M Chancellor John Sharp to propose expanding in Fort Worth, some 175 miles north of the flagship campus in College Station. The result is hundreds of millions of dollars in three new buildings planned for the southeast corner of downtown, the first of which broke ground last year.
Meanwhile, Tarleton is opening its second Fort Worth building. University officials are planning a third as they expect enrollment to surge beyond their current 2,500 students.
The campus on the southwest edge of Fort Worth has attracted predominantly working adults since it opened in 2019, President James Hurley said. Ensuring social mobility for students is key, he said.
An enrollment projection shows that site could reach more than 10,000 students by 2030.
The A&M System is not the only one expanding options for students near Cowtown.
This summer, UT System regents approved purchasing 51 acres for a new “UTA West” campus along the western edge of Fort Worth — not too far from the A&M and Tarleton sites.
UTA West will open in fall 2028, and its projected enrollment is 10,000 students.
Building a new system
In the 1950s, Texas Woman’s University began training future nurses in Dallas in partnership with Parkland Hospital.
Now, the historically women’s institution based in Denton is building on that legacy with the goal of opening campuses across the state.
The Legislature approved Texas Woman’s becoming a system in 2021. In January, Monica Christopher was named TWU Dallas’ first president. In July, the system named Monica G. Williams inaugural president of the Houston school.
“Our goal is really to grow the Dallas campus as well as TW Houston campus to a point where they can be standalone universities within the TW System,” Christopher said.
Both campuses are leaning into their health programs.
TWU opened its Dallas site in the Medical District in 2011. It includes a pro-bono clinic that serves community patients who have had a stroke and traumatic brain injury.
TWU is recognized for its efforts to graduate nurses, battling persistent state shortages.
The state could be short as many as 57,000 nurses by 2032, according to a 2022 report by the Texas Department of Health and Human Services.
TWU, which was founded in 1901, accepts men but is still 90% women.
“Our focus, and certainly part of our name and our mission, have always been around educating and empowering women,” Christopher said.
It not only focuses on fields often dominated by women, such as nursing, but in areas where they are underrepresented, such as in CEO positions. TWU recently received a $30 million gift to grow its new business programs.
Recently, TWU partnered with Dallas College, A&M-Commerce and UNT-Dallas to create the Dallas Transfer Collaborative — an initiative to streamline the transfer process among the schools.
The collaboration includes an online tool – the Transfer Hub – where students can find guidance and resources about transferring credits.
Focus on affordability
Bringing classes closer to North Texas students — allowing many to attend school while living at home or working — is just one way schools are making college more affordable for families.
For example, Texas Tech University launched “$10K Degree Completion Program” in May aimed at transfer students who already have an associate’s degree or 70 to 80 credit hours.
Students’ work or life experiences can be considered for additional credits to minimize the number of classes they must take, Texas Tech Provost Ron Hendrick said.
The program is available through the Lubbock-based system’s Irving site, which has been reopened after renovations and offers hybrid programs with online and in-person components.
“People who’ve been, for example, in managerial experience positions, people who have been in leadership roles, perhaps in the military,” Hendrick said. “These are relevant skills that they have gained and learned on the job that they might otherwise be taught in the classroom.”
Meanwhile, the UNT System is offering a program called “North Texas NOW!” aimed at helping high school students earn college credit through its Frisco site.
It’s a dual-credit program focused on hands-on learning in areas such as logistics and supply chain management, project design and data science.
The Frisco building is industry-oriented and focused on encouraging networking and collaboration, said Audhesh Paswan, the school’s vice provost and dean of the College of Applied and Collaborative Studies.
Paswan noted multiple degree programs combine a variety of disciplines focused on workforce needs. The industrial distribution program, he said, “teaches students some combination of supply chain distribution, logistics and engineering.”
Another is a minor in brewing. Students learn about wine and beer production and distribution. “That’s a combination of chemistry, merchandising and social science,” Paswan said.
UNT Frisco was built after that city, as part of its economic plans, donated 100 acres to the system to attract companies to the area. They picked UNT because they wanted a Tier One research school, Paswan said.
The location opened in January 2023 and has more than 3,000 students.
Flexible and hybrid programs attract adult students, said David Attis, managing director of research at the education consulting company EAB.
About 10 to 15 years ago, Attis said, leaders thought we wouldn’t need more campuses with the rise of online learning. But students want face-to-face instruction and support, he said.
“Working adults are place-bound. Having more sites in strategic locations can make a big difference,” he added.
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