RAND researchers analyzed policies and practices that the state, higher education systems, and individual higher education institutions in Texas can use to manage the expansion of their master's, doctoral, and professional programs.

Texas’s 60x30TX strategic plan and RAND researchers’ analysis of labor market projections point to a continuation of strong growth in graduate education in the state. To examine issues related to graduate education in Texas, the College for All Texans Foundation asked RAND to assess Texas’s need to expand graduate degree production. This document is the executive summary for RR-1899-CFAT, Managing the Expansion of Graduate Education in Texas, which should help the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB), higher education systems, and individual higher education institutions in Texas assess the need to expand their master’s, doctoral, and professional programs, and may be useful in framing issues that THECB should address in developing a strategic plan to align graduate education in the state with the goals of the 60x30TX strategic plan. To be competitive, Texas needs to compare favorably with other states and countries. The number of research universities in Texas is increasing rapidly, but too few of these institutions are ranked at the highest levels internationally. Texas’s institutions also do not attract the same share of federal research and development funding as other states, especially California. To further increase the competitiveness of its universities, Texas will likely need to make additional public investments in research capacity for institutions at several stages of development. Generally, Texas has been increasing its production of graduate degrees in fields corresponding to the occupational groups that are expected to have the most job openings: business, healthcare, education, computers, and engineering. However, because growth in graduate engineering degrees has been slow compared with other states and with projected demand, THECB and institutions should consider expanding graduate programs in engineering. In addition, greater efforts should be made to recruit domestic students and provide adequate financial support to motivate those with a bachelor’s degree to pursue graduate education. Finally, as Texas explores ways to increase graduate education production, new programs will likely be necessary in addition to increasing enrollments in existing programs.

In the era marked by globalization and its profound impacts on individuals, societies, states and markets, world-class universities need to position themselves in the forefront of seeking conceptual and practical solutions to daunting challenges by paying greater attention to their roles in serving local society and contributing to global common goods. Based on the findings of the Seventh International Conference on World-Class Universities, World-Class Universities: Towards a Global Common Good and Seeking National and Institutional Contributions provides updated insights and debates on how world-class universities will contribute to the global common good and balance their global, national and local roles in doing so.

Originally published in 1990 this book provides an authoritative and detailed account of the initiatives of US state governments with science and technology programs designed to foster economic growth. Two key questions are posed: Do state governments have policy instruments that are sufficiently powerful to affect thelevels and growth rates of their regional economies? and Are national and global economic forces so powerful that they render state action ineffective? Several subsidiary themes are discusses in this context, namely: the most commonly used policy instruments, the impacts on federalism and on governance and how well the universities and other educational institutions serve the economic activities imposed on them.