Texas Physics Consortium Wins Approval for a Joint Undergraduate Physics Degree Program

The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board has granted the Texas Physics Consortium, a group of Texas Physics Departments, permission to offer a joint BS degree in physics.  The Consortium, consisting of Midwestern State University, Prairie View A&M University, Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, Texas A&M University-Kingsville, Tarleton State University, Texas Southern University, West Texas A&M University, Texas A&M University-Commerce, and Texas A&M University-Central Texas, was formed in 2011-12 in response to the Coordinating Board’s decision to close undergraduate degree programs with fewer than five graduates per year (averaged over three years).

The Consortium will pool faculty expertise and institutional resources to provide access to quality upper-level undergraduate and graduate physics courses while maintaining the intimate student-faculty interaction of a small department.  The Consortium members attended the AAPT SPIN-UP Regional Workshop in Austin, TX in May 2012 (funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation), where they developed strategic plans for enhancing their undergraduate programs.

The national AAPT office worked with the Texas Sections of APS and AAPT to build support for the Consortium’s plans.  The Consortium’s program will become the third largest producer of B.S. Physics Graduates in Texas.