Excelencia in Education Rankings UTRGV The Future of Texas
Monday, October 12, 2020
By Victoria Brito
RIO GRANDE VALLEY, TEXAS – Excelencia in Education has ranked UTRGV first in Texas for the high number of bachelor’s degrees it awarded to Hispanics in 2017-2018.
The ranking – Bachelor’s Degrees: Top Institutions Awarding to Hispanics in Texas for 2017-2018 – shows UTRGV awarded 89 percent of the 4,046 bachelor’s degrees in that ranking period to Hispanics.
This standing, cited in the Latino College Completion: United States rankings, places UTRGV above Texas A&M, University of Houston, UT El Paso and UT San Antonio.
UTRGV also ranked fourth in the Top Texas Institutions category for enrolling Hispanic undergraduates in Texas for 2018-2019.
Nationally, UTRGV ranked third in awarding bachelor’s degrees to Hispanics in 2017-2018, behind Florida International University and California State University-Fullerton.
UTRGV President Guy Bailey said rankings like these affirm the university’s goal of providing quality education to the region.
“This ranking only further reinforces that we strive to provide a quality and accessible education to our unique community here in the Rio Grande Valley,” he said. “We are pleased to be recognized for our commitment on a national ranking.”
The rankings are released every two years by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), with the annual reporting period from July 1 through June 30.
According to the website, nationally, Latino student enrollment and degree completion continues to increase. In 2017-2018, about 24 percent of Latino adults 25 and older earned an associate’s degree or higher, versus 46 percent of white adults in the United States.
ABOUT UTRGV
The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) was created by the Texas Legislature in 2013 as the first major public university of the 21st century in Texas. This transformative initiative provided the opportunity to expand educational opportunities in the Rio Grande Valley, including a new School of Medicine, and made it possible for residents of the region to benefit from the Permanent University Fund – a public endowment contributing support to the University of Texas System and other institutions.
UTRGV has campuses and off-campus research and teaching sites throughout the Rio Grande Valley including in Boca Chica Beach, Brownsville (formerly The University of Texas at Brownsville campus), Edinburg (formerly The University of Texas-Pan American campus), Harlingen, McAllen, Port Isabel, Rio Grande City, and South Padre Island. UTRGV, a comprehensive academic institution, enrolled its first class in the fall of 2015, and the School of Medicine welcomed its first class in the summer of 2016.