Texas A&M Aims to be Top 10 University
Published Oct 22, 2009
The moniker Lone Star State may not be fully accurate.
In terms of education, Texas has many bright stars, including two in The Research Valley: Texas A&M University and Blinn College. These two higher-education institutions work together to create excellent opportunities for students.
Texas A&M is focused on a comprehensive academic master plan, Accelerating Excellence.
Jeffrey S. Vitter, provost and executive vice president for academics, is leading this strategic plan designed to place the land-grant university among the top-10 public universities in the nation by 2020.
Three major thrusts of the plan are: research, teaching/learning and engagement.
Hundreds of faculty, students and staff, department heads and other administrators have been focusing their planning on key academic areas.
Identifying landmark research involved soliciting white paper proposals from throughout the country. The Research Roadmap committee at Texas A&M has narrowed the field of 111 submissions to 18 finalists. The next step will be to select the winning research projects.
Vitter says that this pertinent research will help address needs of society and contribute to Texas’ – and the nation’s – economic development.
Meanwhile, the teaching roadmap calls for improved instruction and learning – “and better preparation of our graduates for the 21st century,” Vitter says.
The engagement roadmap is intended to “lay out Texas A&M’s role in impacting society through development of pathways to higher education, community and government engagement, entrepreneurship, and commercialization,” Vitter explains.
This academic master plan will be completed in fall 2009, and the various colleges of Texas A&M will work on their own strategic plans as well as new, exciting curriculum.
In terms of facilities, new classrooms and labs are planned. Thirty new projects are in various stages – including the Health Sciences Center in West Bryan. In all, $700 million in new and future construction is under way or in the planning stages at College Station and Bryan. On the cutting edge of genetic research will be the 105,000-square-foot Texas Institute for Genomic Medicine at College Station. Total cost of the project, which is in the design phase, is $40 million.
Projects recently completed are the $95 million Interdisciplinary Life Sciences building and the $100 million, 230,000-square-foot Emerging Technologies & Economic Development Interdisciplinary building.
Story by Lousie Gacioch
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