University of Texas at Austin

The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas, United States. Founded in 1883, it is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 53,864 students as of fall 2024, it is also the largest institution in the system.

The university is a major center for academic research, with research expenditures totaling $1.06 billion for the 2023 fiscal year. It joined the Association of American Universities in 1929. The university houses seven museums and seventeen libraries, including the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library and the Blanton Museum of Art, and operates various auxiliary research facilities, such as the J. J. Pickle Research Campus and McDonald Observatory.

UT Austin's athletics constitute the Texas Longhorns. The Longhorns have won four NCAA Division I National Football Championships, six NCAA Division I National Baseball Championships, sixteen NCAA Division I National Men's Swimming and Diving Championships, and the school has claimed more titles in men's and women's sports than any other member in the Big 12.

As of 2020, 13 Nobel Prize winners, 25 Pulitzer Prize winners, 3 Turing Award winners, 2 Fields Medal recipients, 2 Wolf Prize winners, 3 Abel Prize winners, and 1 Dan David Prize winner have been affiliated with the school as alumni, faculty members, or researchers. The university has also been affiliated with three Primetime Emmy Award winners, and as of 2021, its students and alumni have earned a total of 155 Olympic medals.

History

Establishment

The idea of a public university in Texas was first mentioned in the 1827 constitution of the Mexican state of Coahuila y Tejas, which promised public education in the arts and sciences under Title 6, Article 217, but no action was taken. After Texas gained independence from Mexico in 1836, the Constitution of the Republic emphasized Congress's duty, in Section 5 of its General Provisions, to establish a general system of education when circumstances allowed.

After Texas was annexed, the Seventh Texas Legislature passed O.B. 102 on February 11, 1858, allocating $100,000 in United States bonds from the Compromise of 1850 for the University of Texas. The Civil War delayed fund repayment, leaving the university with only $16,000 by 1865. Nevertheless, the Texas Constitution of 1876 reaffirmed the mandate to establish "The University of Texas" by popular vote.

On March 30, 1881, the Texas legislature organized the structure of the university and called for a popular vote to determine its location. Austin was chosen as the site with 30,913 votes, while Galveston was designated for the medical department. On November 17, 1882, the cornerstone of the Old Main Building was laid at the original "College Hill" location, and university President Ashbel Smith expressed optimism about Texas's untapped resources. The University of Texas officially opened its doors on September 15, 1883.

Early 20th century development

The old Main Building of the university was built in a Victorian-Gothic style and served as the central point of the campus's 40-acre (16 ha) site, and was used for nearly all purposes. But by the 1930s, discussions arose about the need for new library space, and the Main Building was razed in 1934, despite the objections of many students and faculty. The modern-day tower and Main Building were constructed in its place.

In 1916, a contentious dispute erupted between Texas Governor James E. Ferguson and the University of Texas over faculty appointments. Ferguson's attempt to influence these appointments led to a retaliatory veto of the university's budget, jeopardizing its operations. Subsequently, Ferguson was impeached by the Texas House of Representatives, convicted by the Senate on charges including misapplication of public funds, and removed from office.

In 1921, the legislature appropriated $1.35 million to purchase land next to the main campus. However, expansion was hampered by the restriction against using state revenues to fund construction of university buildings as set forth in Article 7, Section 14 of the Constitution. With the completion of Santa Rita No. 1 well and the discovery of oil on university-owned lands in 1923, the university added significantly to its Permanent University Fund. The additional income from Permanent University Fund investments allowed for bond issues in 1931 and 1947, which allowed the legislature to address funding for the university along with the Agricultural and Mechanical College (now known as Texas A&M University). With sufficient funds to finance construction on both campuses, on April 8, 1931, the Forty Second Legislature passed H.B. 368. which dedicated the Agricultural and Mechanical College a 1/3 interest in the Available University Fund, the annual income from Permanent University Fund investments.

Campus

The university's property totals 1,438.5 acres (582.1 ha), comprising the 423.5 acres (171.4 ha) for the Main Campus in central Austin and the J. J. Pickle Research Campus in north Austin and the other properties throughout Texas. The main campus has 150 buildings totaling over 18,000,000 square feet (1,700,000 m2).

One of the university's most visible features is the Beaux-Arts Main Building, including a 307-foot (94 m) tower designed by Paul Philippe Cret. Completed in 1937, the Main Building is in the middle of campus. The tower usually appears illuminated in white light in the evening but is lit burnt orange for various special occasions, including athletic victories and academic accomplishments; conversely, it is darkened for solemn occasions. At the top of the tower is a carillon of 56 bells, the largest in Texas. Songs are played on weekdays by student carillonneurs, in addition to the usual pealing of Westminster Quarters every quarter-hour between 6 a.m. and 9 p.m. In 1998, after the installation of security and safety measures, the observation deck reopened to the public indefinitely for weekend tours.

The university's seven museums and seventeen libraries hold over nine million volumes, making it the seventh-largest academic library in the country. The holdings of the university's Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center include one of only 21 remaining complete copies of the Gutenberg Bible and the first permanent photograph, View from the Window at Le Gras, taken by Nicéphore Niépce. The newest museum, the 155,000-square-foot (14,400 m2) Blanton Museum of Art, is the largest university art museum in the United States and hosts approximately 17,000 works from Europe, the United States, and Latin America. The Perry–Castañeda Library, which houses the central University Libraries operations and the Perry–Castañeda Library Map Collection, is at the heart of campus. The Benson Latin American Collection holds the largest collection of Latin American materials among US university libraries, and maintains substantial digital collections.

The University of Texas at Austin has an extensive tunnel system that links the buildings on campus. Constructed c. 1928 under the supervision of UT engineering professor Carl J. Eckhardt Jr., then head of the physical plant, the tunnels have grown along with the campus. They measure approximately six miles in length. The tunnel system is used for communications and utility service. It is closed to the public and guarded by silent alarms. Since the late 1940s, the university has generated its own electricity. Today its natural gas cogeneration plant has a capacity of 123 MW. The university also operates a TRIGA nuclear reactor at the J. J. Pickle Research Campus.

Organization and administration

The university contains sixteen colleges and schools and two academic units, each listed with its founding date:

Academics

The University of Texas at Austin offers more than 100 undergraduate and 170 graduate degrees. In the 2009–2010 academic year, the university awarded a total of 13,215 degrees: 67.7% bachelor's degrees, 22.0% master's degrees, 6.4% doctoral degrees, and 3.9% Professional degrees.

In addition, the university has nine honors programs, eight of which span a variety of academic fields: Liberal Arts Honors, the Business Honors Program, the Turing Scholars Program in Computer Science, Engineering Honors, the Dean's Scholars Program in Natural Sciences, the Health Science Scholars Program in Natural Sciences, the Polymathic Scholars Program in Natural Sciences, and the Undergraduate Nursing Honors Program in School of Nursing. The ninth is the Plan II Honors Program, an interdisciplinary program that is a major in and of itself. Many Plan II students pursue a second major, often participating in another department's honors program in addition to Plan II. The university also offers programs such as the Freshman Research Initiative and Texas Interdisciplinary Plan.

Undergraduate

The University of Texas at Austin encourages applicants to submit SAT/ACT scores, but it is not required. However, for students applying for admission from fall 2025 onwards, submission of SAT/ACT scores is mandatory as part of their undergraduate admission application. As of 2011, the university was one of the most selective universities in the region. Relative to other universities in the state of Texas, UT Austin was second to Rice University in selectivity according to a Business Journal study weighing acceptance rates and the mid-range of the SAT and ACT. The University of Texas at Austin was ranked as the 18th most selective in the South.

As a state public university, UT Austin was subject to Texas House Bill 588, which guaranteed Texas high school seniors graduating in the top 10% of their class admission to any public Texas university. A new state law granting UT Austin (but no other state university) a partial exemption from the top 10% rule, Senate Bill 175, was passed by the 81st Legislature in 2009. It modified this admissions policy by limiting automatically admitted freshmen to 75% of the entering in-state freshman class, starting in 2011. The university will admit the top one percent, the top two percent and so forth until the cap is reached; the university currently admits the top 6%. Furthermore, students admitted under Texas House Bill 588 are not guaranteed their choice of college or major, but rather only guaranteed admission to the university as a whole. Many colleges, such as the Cockrell School of Engineering, have secondary requirements that must be met for admission.

Research

UT Austin is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity". For the 2014–2015 cycle, the university was awarded over $580 million in sponsored projects, and has earned more than 300 patents since 2003. The University of Texas at Austin houses the Office of Technology Commercialization, a technology transfer center which serves as the bridge between laboratory research and commercial development. In 2009, the university created nine new start-up companies to commercialize technology developed at the university and has created 46 start-ups in the past seven years. License agreements generated $10.9 million in revenue for the university in 2009. In January 2020, the University of Texas Austin's Texas Innovation Center was established to provide support for startups.

Engineering and physical sciences

Research at UT Austin is largely focused in the engineering and physical sciences, and the university is a world-leading research institution in fields such as computer science. Energy is a major research thrust, with federally funded projects on biofuels, battery and solar cell technology, and geological carbon dioxide storage, water purification membranes, among others. In 2009, the University of Texas founded the Energy Institute, led by former Under Secretary for Science Raymond L. Orbach, to organize and advance multi-disciplinary energy research. In addition to its own medical school, it houses medical programs associated with other campuses and allied health professional programs, as well as major research programs in pharmacy, biomedical engineering, neuroscience, and others.

In 2010, the University of Texas at Austin opened the $100 million Dell Pediatric Research Institute to increase medical research at the university and establish a medical research complex, and associated medical school, in Austin.

The university operates several major auxiliary research centers. The world's third-largest telescope, the Hobby–Eberly Telescope, and three other large telescopes are part of the university's McDonald Observatory, 450 miles (720 km) west of Austin. The university manages nearly 300 acres (120 ha) of biological field laboratories, including the Brackenridge Field Laboratory in Austin. The Center for Agile Technology focuses on software development challenges. The J.J. Pickle Research Campus (PRC) is home to the Texas Advanced Computing Center which operates a series of supercomputers, such as Ranger (from 2008 to 2013), Stampede (2013–2017), Stampede2 (since 2017), and Frontera (since 2019). The Pickle campus also hosts the Microelectronics Research Center which houses micro- and nanoelectronics research and features a 15,000 square foot (1,400 m2) cleanroom for device fabrication.

Student life

Student profile

For fall 2024, the university enrolled 43,165 undergraduate students and 10,699 postgraduate students, bringing the total student count to 53,864. Out-of-state students accounted for 9.2% of the total student body, and international students comprised 9.7% of the total student body.

For fall 2015, the undergraduate student body was 48.9% male and 51.1% female. In 2022, the three most popular undergraduate majors were Biology/Biological Sciences, Psychology, and Computer and Information Sciences. For graduate studies, the top choices were Business Administration and Management, Accounting, and Management Sciences and Quantitative Methods.

Residential life

The campus has fourteen residence halls, the newest of which opened in spring 2007. As of 2024, there are a total of fifteen on-campus residence halls, with eight located in North Campus and seven in South Campus. Residence Hall Rates for the 2024–25 fall and spring terms vary across eleven different rates, ranging from the lowest rate of $13,504 to the highest rate of $20,447, each corresponding to different room types. On-campus housing can hold more than 7,100 students. Jester Center is the largest residence hall with its capacity of 2,945. Academic enrollment exceeds the on-campus housing capacity; as a result, most students must live in private residence halls, housing cooperatives, apartments, or with Greek organizations and other off-campus residences. University Housing and Dining, which already has the largest market share of 7,000 of the estimated 27,000 beds in the campus area, plans to expand to 9,000 beds.

Greek life

The University of Texas at Austin is home to an active Greek community. Approximately 14 percent of undergraduate students are in fraternities or sororities. With more than 65 national chapters, the university's Greek community is one of the nation's largest. These chapters are under the authority of one of the school's six Greek council communities, Interfraternity Council, National Pan-Hellenic Council, Texas Asian Pan-Hellenic Council, Latino Pan-Hellenic Council, Multicultural Greek Council and University Panhellenic Council. Other registered student organizations also name themselves with Greek letters and are called affiliates. They are not a part of one of the six councils but have all of the same privileges and responsibilities of any other organization. Most Greek houses are west of the Drag in the West Campus neighborhood.

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