TO:	Honorable Judith Zaffirini, Chair, Senate Committee on Higher Education
FROM:	John S O'Brien, Director, Legislative Budget Board
IN RE:	SB324 by Jackson (Relating to the course levels offered by the University of Houston--Clear Lake.), As Introduced

The following information was provided by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board.

 

          UHCL is a non-residential, upper-level university authorized by the Texas legislature in 1971; classes were first offered at the institution in fall 1974. The main campus is located at 2700 Bay Area Boulevard in Houston, Texas.  In 2007, UHCL received permission from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board to open an off-campus center at Pearland; this center began offering classes in fall 2010. At present, UHCL offers 36 baccalaureate degree programs, 44 master’s degree programs, and one doctoral degree program. UHCL has four schools associated with it: School of Business, School of Education, School of Human Sciences and Humanities, and School of Science and Computer Engineering. UHCL’s FY 2010 budget was $105,539,085, and the institution reported having over 50,000 alumni in fall 2009.

 

          In fall 2010, UHCL had a headcount of 8,099 students: 4,326 undergraduates and 3,773 post-baccalaureate and graduate students; its full-time student equivalency (FTSE) was 4,960.63. The demographic breakdown of UHCL’s headcount enrollment for fall 2010 is in the table below.

 

Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, Higher Education Accountability System

 

 

Need for a Four-Year Institution in the Area

 

The population of Harris County and the two counties closest to UHCL, Galveston and Brazoria, was estimated to be 4,484,534 (Harris County: 3,909,790; Brazoria County: 292,304; Galveston County: 282,440) by the United States Census Bureau in 2009. This population is growing at a slightly lower rate than the rest of the state. Combined, these counties are expected to grow by 10.38 percent in overall population from 4,709,040 to 5,197,903 residents between 2010 and 2015 and by 21.21 percent in overall population from 4,709,040 to 5,707,759 residents between 2010 and 2020 as the following table illustrates. UHCL reports that the population within a ten mile radius of its campus is projected to grow to 639,876 by 2014, an estimated increase of 55,000 from 2009 population estimates. This radius includes parts or all of Alvin, Bacliff, Deer Park, Dickinson, Friendswood, Houston, Kemah, La Porte, League City, Pasadena, Pearland, Santa Fe, Seabrook, South Houston, and Webster Counties.

 

 

Estimated Population Growth

 

	2010	2015	2020	Rate of Growth 2010-2015	Rate of Growth 2010-2020
Harris County	4,096,052	4,513,488	4,945,161	10.41%	21.61%
Ages 15-34	1,273,304	1,329,531	1,399,204	1.37%	3.07%
Brazoria County	319,043	365,121	416,425	10.19%	20.73%
Ages 15-34	87,430	101,421	112,477	3.45%	5.37%
Galveston County	293,945	319,294	346,173	8.62%	17.77%
Ages 15-34	82,237	89,421	94,108	2.44%	4.04%
Statewide	25,373,947	28,015,550	30,858,449	10.41%	21.61%
Ages 15-34	7,600,189	8,137,301	8,670,972	2.12%	4.22%

          Texas State Demographer projected growth based upon a scenario which uses the growth rate between 2000 and 2007.

 

         

United States Census, Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, and Texas Education Agency data indicate that there are 11 public high schools within a ten mile radius of UHCL. Over 60 percent of these high school graduates enrolled in either a two-year or a four-year Texas higher education institution. This means that almost 38 percent of area high school graduates attended an out-of-state institution, enlisted in the armed services, or did not enroll in an institution of higher education. However, transfer from a two-year institution to a four-year institution remains low. In fall 2008 only 20.5 percent of Gulf Coast community college graduates transferred to a four year institution. This suggests that there is both a large high school graduate population that is not attending a Texas higher education institution as well as a large community college graduate population that is not advancing to complete a baccalaureate degree. This could indicate a large population of college eligible students from which a downward expanded UHCL could draw.

 

          Baccalaureate-level attainment in the region, however, compares favorably to that of the state. On average, 26.2 percent of the adults over the age of 25 in Harris, Brazoria, and Galveston Counties hold a baccalaureate degree or higher. For comparison, the statewide average is 25.4 percent. This could indicate that the current baccalaureate opportunities in these counties are sufficient.

 

 

 

 

Percent of Population 25 Years Old and Older Holding a

Baccalaureate Degree or Higher

 

U.S. Census Bureau, American Fact Finder, 2005-2009 estimates

 

 

          According to enrollment data provided by UHCL, the zip codes providing UHCL with the highest percentage of students (undergraduate and graduate) are as follows.

 

Student Enrollment by Zip Code Fall 2009

 

Only zip codes that provided at least one percent of UHCL’s enrollment are included in this table.

 

 

According to UHCL data, 46.6 percent of UHCL’s total enrollment came from students with zip codes within a 10-mile radius of the campus; 28.9 percent of the undergraduate enrollment came from students with zip codes within a 10-mile radius of the campus. Additionally, 17.7 percent of UHCL graduates were living in zip codes within a 10-mile radius of the campus as of fall 2009.

 

 

Impact on Area Community Colleges

 

          There are currently three community colleges within a 20-mile radius of UHCL: Houston Community College’s Southeast campus, San Jacinto Community College’s Central campus, and San Jacinto College’s South campus. The table below shows the distance of each institution from UHCL and the estimated drive times to teach institution from UHCL.

 

 

 

Because Houston Community College is accredited as a system rather than as individual campuses, all data reported to the Coordinating Board is system-wide data; data for the Southeast campus is not available. However, San Jacinto College’s Central and South campuses are accredited individually, and data is reported to the Coordinating Board for each institution. Enrollment data for San Jacinto-Central and San Jacinto-South can be found in the following table.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Enrollment Data for San Jacinto-Central and San Jacinto-South

Fall 2010

 

Institution	Academic Student Headcount	Technical Student Headcount	Total Student Headcount	Academic Semester Credit Hours	Technical Semester Credit Hours	Total Semester Credit Hours
San Jacinto-Central	10,322	4,713	15,035	10,322	4,713	15,035
San Jacinto-South	8,443	2,054	10,497	8,443	2,054	10,497

 

 

Ethnic Makeup of Enrollment at San Jacinto-Central and San Jacinto-South

Fall 2010

Institution	White	Hispanic	African American	Asian	Native American	Multi-racial One of Which is African American	International	Other
San Jacinto-Central	42.75%	41.40%	5.86%	4.13%	N/A	0.36%	2.33%	3.21%
San Jacinto-South	39.22%	32.13%	10.67%	9.13%	N/A	0.43%	4.34%	4.08%

Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, Higher Education Accountability System

 

          Each year, a significant number of students enroll in San Jacinto College-Central and San Jacinto College-South right after graduation from high school and eventually transfer to UHCL.

 

 

Number of High School Graduates Enrolled in San Jacinto-Central and San Jacinto-South

 

Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

San Jacinto-Central and San Jacinto-South Graduation and Transfer Data

 

Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, Higher Education Accountability System

 

          Roughly 17 percent of San Jacinto-Central’s academic transfer students transferred to UHCL while roughly 14 percent of San Jacinto-South’s academic transfer students transferred to UHCL. Given the annual number of high school graduates who enroll in San Jacinto-Central and San Jacinto-South and the number of students transferring to UHCL from these institutions, downward expansion of UHCL could potentially have a negative impact on San Jacinto-Central and San Jacinto-South enrollments. Assuming that those students who transferred to UHCL would have attended as first-year students if given the option, San Jacinto-Central could lose $292,874 in state funding while San Jacinto-South could lose $226,741 in state funding per semester. These numbers would increase to approximately $421,121 for San Jacinto-Central and $326,029 for San Jacinto-South if tuition and fees are included in the calculations.[1]

 

          It is difficult to predict the impact of downward expansion on area community colleges. Since 1990, seven universities have downward expanded: The University of Texas at Brownsville, The University of Texas of the Permian Basin, Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, Texas A&M International University, The University of Texas at Tyler, and University of Houston-Victoria. Of these seven universities, only one, Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi (downward expanded in 1994), had a local community college that experienced a decrease in headcount enrollment after the downward expansion as the table below illustrates.

 

 

 

In the case of the two most recent universities that have downward expanded, The University of Texas at Tyler and University of Houston-Victoria, local community college enrollments appear not to have been negatively affected.

 

 

          UHCL has signed a Partnership Agreement with Alvin Community College, College of the Mainland, Galveston College, and the San Jacinto College District. Although the area community colleges state in the agreement that they “believe the educational needs of the region are being met” and “are not indicating their endorsement of the downward expansion,” they do not offer an objection to the proposed bill. The Partnership Agreement outlines a number of areas for collaboration as well as several promises by UHCL including guaranteed admission to qualified community college transfer students, reverse articulation agreements, a commitment to not offer dual credit courses outside of UHCL’s campus, and a commitment to not offer lower-level courses at UHCL’s Pearland Campus.

 

Other Cost Issues

 

          In fiscal year 2009, UHCL expended 15.1 percent of its operating budget for administrative costs, making it the second highest among the 35 universities that reported data that year. As a point of comparison, University of Houston-Victoria expended 10 percent, The University of Texas at Tyler expended 11.6 percent, and The University of Texas-Permian Basin expended 7.9 percent (all of these institutions are also classified by the Coordinating Board as Master’s Level Universities and are a part of the peer accountability group to which UHCL belongs).

         

          The Coordinating Board’s fall 2010 Space Usage Efficiency report indicates that UHCL is currently under-utilizing its classroom space with an average percent fill rate of 60 percent (the state average is 62 percent) and a Space Usage Efficiency (SUE) score of 50. This score indicates that UHCL’s classroom space is under-utilized, especially during the daytime hours between 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. UHCL indicates that there are currently enough classrooms to accommodate the predicted first and second year student population until the third year of operation. At that time, the institution plans to request tuition revenue bond authority from the legislature during the 2013 session for the creation of a new academic building.

 

          According to estimates by the University of Houston-Clear Lake, the cost of expansion would remain as a deficit until year five, assuming current levels of formula funding.

 

 

It should be noted that the above calculations are based upon the 2010-2011 formula funding prior state budget reductions.

 

Options for Increasing Baccalaureate-Level Attainment

 

            There are a number of other ways for UHCL to increase student enrollment and baccalaureate-level attainment in the south Houston areas beyond downward expansion. One option would be the expansion of the institution’s existing efforts to work with adult degree completion students. There are currently over 200,000 Texans with at least 55 semester credit hours from a Texas public university that have dropped out within the last five years. UHCL has experience working with these students and offers a number of online degree programs that are particularly well suited for these adult learners. The expansion of UHCL’s existing online programs as well as the addition of an online general education baccalaureate degree could attract a large number of returning adult students.

         

          Additionally, UHCL could increase enrollment through strengthened community college articulation and partnership agreements. Such strengthened relationships, which might include offering upper level courses on community college campuses and providing community colleges with UHCL advisors, could also significantly increase the number of transfer students from area community colleges.