The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board is dedicated to helping Texas meet the goals of the state’s higher education plan, Closing the Gaps by 2015. Meeting those goals means a bright future of economic vitality, social independence, and civic engagement for the citizens of Texas. Not meeting those goals means a future of lower household incomes, more stress on social services, and fewer people capable of participating as contributing citizens to our great state.

The goals of Closing the Gaps fall into two categories around which the Board’s staff is organized:

Participation and Success
To achieve Texas’ bright future, enrollments in our colleges and universities must increase by the year 2015 by 630,000 students. Since the “expected” increase based on past trends would be 300,000 students by 2015, we have our work cut out for us. But enrolling more people is not enough – they must graduate, too. Texas will not achieve the results it needs if students do not succeed in their higher education endeavors.

Academic Excellence and Research
Enrolling and graduating hundreds of thousands more students is a step in the right direction. But getting a degree in a poor quality program will not give people the competitive edge they need in today’s world economy. Academic rigor and excellence are essential – both at the undergraduate and graduate levels. We also need to attract and support more research in the state for the academic and economic benefits it provides.