• Home
• Texas

Texas, the ‘Lone Star State’, is home to some famous US metropolis such as Dallas, Houston and Austin. So what about higher education in the second most populous state in the US? Texas – Dedicated Towards Increasing College Enrollments The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB) has been working towards encouraging more and more students to join institutions of higher level learning, adding 540,000 more students to college enrollments since …

Texas, the ‘Lone Star State’, is home to some famous US metropolis such as Dallas, Houston and Austin. So what about higher education in the second most populous state in the US?

Texas – Dedicated Towards Increasing College Enrollments

The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB) has been working towards encouraging more and more students to join institutions of higher level learning, adding 540,000 more students to college enrollments since 2000. In fact, the state competes not just with leading US states such as New York, California and Massachusetts, but also internationally with top universities in China, Korea and Germany. That shows the state’s goals of advancing higher education achievement amongst residents.

Distance Education Trends in Texas

Needless to say, given the convenience and flexibility that online learning offers, the popularity of distance education in Texas is rising. From a mere 2.45 percent distance education semester hours in public universities in Texas in Fall 2001, the number has risen to 11.5 percent. The summer semester has the greatest percentage of distance learning students, and this mode of learning is more popular among public community and technical colleges.

Texas Enrollment Forecasts

The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board forecasts that more than 1.5 million students will be enrolled in institutions of higher learning in Texas by 2020. Needless to say, online degrees will be quite useful in achieving this forecast as more and more working adults prefer to complete their college degrees via the distance learning mode.

Top Occupational Groups in the Lone Star State

As has been the trend in most of the US, some of the more popular occupational groups, generating the most employment for residents are in the following fields:

• Office and administrative support
• Management occupations
• Business and financial operations occupations
• Healthcare support occupations
• Computer and mathematical occupations

Getting into these fields require candidates to possess a college level degree.

Leading Professions and Salaries

Amongst the top occupational groups mentioned above, some popular professions in Texas and the respective median annual salary levels, according to survey data from Payscale.com, are as follows:

So, are you also living in Texas, or planning to move there in the near future for you career? Which profession is your preferred choice? Which colleges will you enroll in?