State of Higher Education: Local colleges urge students to consider starting and finishing in Katy

By George Slaughter, News Editor
Posted 2/23/23

With Katy’s population continuing to grow, officials from local colleges are developing and promoting plans for students to “start in Katy and finish in Katy” as they pursue their higher education goals.

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State of Higher Education: Local colleges urge students to consider starting and finishing in Katy

Posted

With Katy’s population continuing to grow, officials from local colleges are developing and promoting plans for students to “start in Katy and finish in Katy” as they pursue their higher education goals.

Bob Glenn is president of the University of Houston-Victoria. Jay Neal is associate vice president for academic affairs and chief operating officer of the University of Houston at Sugar Land and the University of Houston at Katy, which has a building at 22400 Grand Circle Blvd. Zach Hodges is president of Houston Community College Northwest, which includes the new Katy campus building at 22910 Colonial Parkway. The three men spoke at a Feb. 16 “State of Higher Education” presentation put on by the Katy Area Chamber of Commerce. The presentation took place at the UHV Katy building, which it shares with UH-Victoria.

Neal provided an overview of programs at UHV Katy, focusing on nursing and engineering. With nursing, Neal said the university recently welcomed new students at its 14th annual hands of caring event. He said the ceremony emphasizes how students have been supported, and how their own hands will now support others as nurses.

Neal said the nursing program is engaged in the accreditation process and reviewing for continuing accreditation for its bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral nursing degree programs.

For engineering, Glenn said the university has partnered with Houston Community College in a partnership where students are dual enrolled at both schools. They take core classes at HCC and their engineering classes at UHV Katy. When they complete their academy classes, students transition to fulltime UH students to complete their bachelor’s degree program. Engineering majors offered through this program include computer engineering and analytics, construction engineering, systems engineering and graduate-level courses.

To raise awareness of the program, Neal said the university’s main campus and UHV have collaborated on co-branded promotions in Katy, including the annual Katy Rice Festival, which takes place in October. More such activities are planned, he said.

Raising UHV Katy’s profile is part of its strategic plan, which was completed in the summer of 2021. Neal said the plan identified four priorities: student success, growth, partnerships and community awareness.

UHV Katy, as it moves forward, plans to consider implementing new services and how it might improve existing ones. Neal said UHV Katy is reviewing a study to assess workforce and family needs and strengthen or add programs as needed.

Early results in several industries include manufacturing, electrical and industrial engineers, Neal said. Cybersecurity and data analytics professionals are also in strong demand, as well as clinical health roles.

One key advantage of the partnerships, and keeping things local, is saving money on tuition. Hodges said the approximate cost of completing associate and bachelor’s degree programs under this partnership is less than $25,000. Tuition at HCC is between $4-8,000, and UHV tuition is about $17,000, he said.

Glenn said UHV, founded in 1973, has an enrollment of 4,176 students and boasts the second-most affordable annual tuition in Texas. Another feature UHV has, he said, is that 63% of its students are first-generation college students.

Although UHV is part of the University of Houston System, Glenn said it is a separate university. And, although the main campus is in Victoria, a two-hour drive from Katy, he said UHV has been in the West Houston region since 2001, serving students in Cinco Ranch, Katy and Sugar Land.

In Katy, Glenn said, the UHV Katy campus offers 101 in-person classes with 908 students enrolled locally. Most classes are offered in the evening, he said.

UHV has partnerships with HCC and other local colleges, Glenn said. It also has corporate partnerships with Amazon and GEICO, and a leadership cohort with Katy ISD to help train future school principals.

Katy Area Chamber of Commerce, UHV, UHV Katy, HCC