Over 300 leaders in higher education, philanthropy, business and industry, and government attended the 2022 Texas Higher Education Leadership Conference. Thank you to everyone for making this year’s conference a huge success!
We heard one theme repeated throughout the conference: This is a pivotal moment for higher education, and Texas is leading the way. Now is the time for our policymakers and higher education leaders to strengthen Texas higher education, so we can drive prosperity and competitiveness for decades to come.
During Texas Commissioner of Higher Education Harrison Keller’s State of Higher Education address, he outlined the three challenges facing Texas higher education today:
- Educational attainment: The pandemic accelerated changes in how we work, the kinds of jobs available, and the types of credentials, degrees, and certificates required to fill those jobs.
- Workforce education: The Texas economy is changing at an unprecedented pace, in directions that require more education beyond high school diplomas, from short-term workforce credentials to graduate degrees.
- Research and development: Competitiveness in every industry, the strength of the state and national economies, and even national security increasingly depend on how well we compete at the frontiers of knowledge and discovery.