Colleges look to expand into Fort Bend
Fast-growing county sees higher education opportunities surging
With work now getting underway on a new Texas State Technical College campus in Rosenberg, Fort Bend County and the Katy area are poised for an expansion of higher education opportunities.
Cited as a young, fast-growing region with robust business and industry, the western Houston suburbs already include Houston Community College, Wharton County Junior College and the University of Houston among the higher education offerings. The county also boasts the highest level of educational attainment for adults over the age of 25 in the Houston region. ‘Working together’
But thanks to a couple of big wins for higher education bills in the Legislature, the region is about to get even more offerings.
“I wasn’t surprised within this session because everybody was working together,” said Jason Smith, vice chancellor and vice president for governmental and community relations with the University of Houston.
Ground was broken recently on the center, at 5500 Avenue North. It will expand TSTC’s programming in the area as a result of HB 658.
The college already partners with Wharton County Junior College at Fort Bend Technical Center. Wharton provides academic instruction and TSTC focuses on technical instruction.
The Rosenberg campus will become a regional destination, according to the school, which described it as “the first phase of a three-part building plan that will be known as the Texas State Technical College Fort Bend County campus.” The campus will be expanding to up to eight buildings to support more than 5,000 students. UH expansions
Meanwhile, HB 100 is providing the funding for, among other projects, the University of Houston expansion in Katy and Sugar Land. The cost of the Sugar Land academic building is $54 million, while the budget for building and land acquisition in Katy is $46.8 million. The university already operates a Cinco Ranch location that serves as a teaching center, but the new campus may eventually replace that, depending on the programming.
“We don’t imagine the amount we receive will cover both of those costs,” said Smith, referring to both the land and building purchases, “which means we have to put something together in order to make this project work.” Because of that, there is no timeline yet on the project, but the vision is of a campus near major thoroughfares that will offer nurs- ing, business and engineering classes and partner with local industry and business.
“Katy is almost the size of Pittsburgh now, so not having a university there, there’s an opportunity for us to provide that type of higher education,” said Smith. Plus, he said, “The area has asked for it. We’ve been working with chambers of commerce and development folks there. We want to provide that opportunity close to home, close to where people work.”
With HB 1982, the university also got a land transfer for 16 acres of land owned by TxDOT near the university’s existing Sugar Land campus.
“This is a significant achievement, as this measure transfers property valued as high as $10 million to UH without cost and ensures that UH Sugar Land has additional space for growth well into the future. This was by no means an easy piece of legislation to pass, but will have a lasting effect for the future of UH Sugar Land,” the university said in a news release.